Nobel Prize economist Robert Solow has died. Solow was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Obama. It’s an honor that was subsequently tarnished by Trump giving one to Rush Limbaugh.
As [Solow’s] work shows, technological advances, broadly defined, are responsible for the bulk of modern economic growth
https://news.mit.edu/2023/institute-professor-emeritus-robert-solow-dies-1222
Solow’s obituary in The New York Times has this amusing quote about John Kenneth Galbraith.
Mr. Galbraith “mingles with Beautiful People; for all I know, he may actually be a Beautiful Person himself.” But the book, he said, “is for the dinner table, not for the desk.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/21/business/robert-solow-dead.html
I think Solow’s “beautiful person” crack may have revealed a bit of the old M.I.T. vs. Harvard rivalry. Meeting the very tall Galbraith was a pivotal event for me in deciding to make Economics my college major.
Coincidental with Solow’s passing, last night’s PBS Newshour has this segment on AI’s potential effects on employment. It was mostly recorded at Boston’s Museum of Science (which is actually in Cambridge), where one of my sisters works developing educational materials.
For a deeper dive into the work of Robert Solow, there is this interview from just six months ago. It was conducted by his former student, economist Steven Levitt.
Yes! I remember an overheard discussion between Bob and my main boss Ernie Berndt as they stood over my desk. They couldn’t agree on a concept, and when the discussion got a little too heated, Bob interjected: “Ernie, you know this shit is flawed at best!” They fell on the floor laughing. Academic humor.
I also remember seeing the word “stochastics” I nearly went Omega, I mean, nuts. And nearly every equation started out:
“Sigma = … “
Typing all of those papers didn’t make you want to study the Dismal Science? 😉
I typed many of his coauthored papers at MIT when I worked at the Sloan School of Management. He was a brilliant man, and I didn’t understand much of what he said, especially the equations!
But he was a lovely man.