“Triangle Man” is now 100 years previous.
Lengthy-time College of Chicago economist Arnold Harberger turned 100 years previous at this time. Until I’m mistaken, he’s nonetheless going comparatively robust, even within the classroom.
The Wikipedia article on a few of Harberger’s accomplishments is definitely fairly good and so I received’t attempt to restate them.
Reasonably, I’ll inform 3 tales about my interactions with, and observations of, Al.
Primary: I first met Al at a cocktail celebration on the residence of my colleague Ron Hansen within the late Seventies after I was a younger assistant professor of economics on the College of Rochester’s Graduate College of Administration (now the Simon College.) To me he was already a god due to means to make use of fundamental worth concept to achieve essential conclusions. However he didn’t act like a god. He was a standard and really welcoming human being.
Quantity two: Once I was on the Cato Institute in 1979, Al helped me with information for an article that my pal Roy Childs was writing. Listed below are the main points.
Quantity three: Whereas the Chatham Home rule applies to proceedings on the Mont Pelerin Society conferences, I can hue to the spirit of the rule in telling this story with out naming names. At one of many occasions on the MPS conferences on the Hoover Establishment in January 2020, there was a breakfast, if I recall appropriately, at which Al spoke; he talked about what was happening in Chile. Within the Seventies and later, Harberger had been essential, way more essential than Milton Friedman, in serving to transfer Chile’s financial system in a free-market course. I talk about his function very briefly in my assessment of Sebastian Edwards’ wonderful 2023 ebook, The Chile Venture: The Story of the Chicago Boys and the Downfall of Financial Liberalism. (I might guess that his assist of the Chicago Boys, though he didn’t assist Pinochet, is one motive he by no means was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics.) He had a protracted and tender relationship with varied “Chicago Boys” from no less than two generations and it was obvious in the best way they questioned him and, to place it bluntly, confirmed their love for him.
In case you’re questioning why I name him “Triangle Man,” take a look at this hyperlink. It’s a pleasant in depth and comprehensible therapy of Harberger’s traditional 1954 article within the American Financial Evaluate, “Monopoly and Useful resource Allocation.” Economists had been stating for many years that monopoly precipitated deadweight loss however he was the primary to attempt to estimate the dimensions of the deadweight loss. Harberger discovered that, for U.S. manufacturing, it was unlikely to be above 0.1 p.c of GNP. (Gross Nationwide Product was the standard measure of the dimensions of an financial system on the time.) There are, to make certain, varied criticisms of his argument and estimate. The purpose is that he did it and nobody earlier than him had finished so. The deadweight loss from monopoly is usually measured by a triangle. Thus the nickname, one which was utilized in varied skits placed on by College of Chicago college students and one which he wore proudly.
Notice: The pic above is of Al Harberger and me after his breakfast discuss.