JAN TINBERGEN

Jan Tinbergen: translation

A Dutch economist who won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1969, along with Ragnar Frisch, for his development and application of dynamic models for analyzing economic processes. Tinbergen was one of the first economists to apply math to economics.

He helped to develop the field of econometrics and developed multi-equation models of national economies that were a precursor to today's computer-driven economic forecasts. His research focused on business cycles and economic development. He also developed the idea that governments must use multiple policy instruments if they want to impact multiple policy targets.

Tinbergen was born in 1903 in the Netherlands and earned his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Leyden. He worked for the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis and the League of Nations and taught development planning at the Netherlands School of Economics in Rotterdam. In addition to his economic contributions, he was known for his generosity and humanitarianism.