Jan Tinbergen

Jan Tinbergen
(1903 - 1994)

Dutch economist noted for his development of econometric models. He was cowinner (with Ragnar Frisch) of the first Nobel Prize for Economics, in 1969.
Tinbergen was the brother of the zoologist Nikolaas Tinbergen and was educated at the University of Leiden. From 1929 to 1945 he was a business-cycle statistician with the Dutch government's Central Bureau of Statistics and from 1945 to 1955 was director of the Central Planning Bureau. He held the post of professor of economics at The Netherlands School of Economics (now part of Erasmus University), Rotterdam, for 40 years (1933-73) and then taught for two years at the University of Leiden before his retirement in 1975.

Tinbergen was an economic adviser to the League of Nations at Geneva, 1936-38, and it was there that he completed his analysis of the economic development of the United States from 1919 to 1932. This pioneering econometric study provided much of the raw material for his later development of business-cycle theory and for the application of methods of economic stabilization. Later he also constructed an econometric model of The Netherlands, which was applied to both short-term and broader political-economic planning.

Among his major works are Statistical Testing of Business Cycles (1938), Econometrics (1942), Economic Policy (1956), and Income Distribution (1975).