Ten Nobels for the future

Lawrence R. Klein was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1920 and was educated at the University of California (Berkeley) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He was a research associate of the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics at the University of Chicago from 1944 to 1947, followed by a year at the Institute for Economic Research at the University of Oslo and a year at the National Bureau of Economics Research in New York. He subsequently was on the faculty of the University of Michigan, the staff of the Survey Research Center, the staff of the Oxford University Institute of Statistics. He was the Reader in Econometrics at Oxford and joined the University of Pennsylvania in 1958, where he taught for 33 years and is presently Benjamin Franklin Professor of Economics, Emeritus.

At the Cowles Commission, Lawrence R. Klein constructed econometric models of the United States for the purpose of studying macroeconomics issues of postwar conversion. At the University of Michigan he constructed, with Arthur Goldberger, the first version of the Michigan Model of the United States, which has served in forecasting movements of the US economy ever since the end of the Korean War.

In Oxford, he continued his model building work for the UK economy. At Pennsylvania, he founded the series of Wharton Models for use in forecasting policy analysis and study of business cycles. In connection with these activities, he founded Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates, which is now known as the WEFA Group , an international company serving the research and business community in orecasting, provision of information systems, software and special studies for clients. At present he chairs the Global Outlook Committee of the WEFA Group.

In 1968, in cooperation with several international economists, Lawrence R. Klein was a founder and principal investigator of Project LINK. This system of 89 interrelated econometric models covers the whole world economy. It is used regularly for assessing world economic trends, provision of information for the United Nations, World Economic and Social Survey and for many special studies. After he has retired from active teaching at Pennsylvania, Project LINK’s academic center has moved to the University of Toronto.

In the election campaign of 1976, Lawrence R. Klein coordinated Jimmy Carter’s Economic Task Force, in his successful bid for the Presidency of the United States.

He has lectured in many universities and research centers over the world and has been awarded more than 25 honorary degrees. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the National Academy of Sciences.

In 1980, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics "for his work in econometric model building, forecasting, policy analysis, and study of business cycles".

1997
Use
of econometric models
in an uncertain environment