Hollis B. Chenery
Hollis Chenery | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chief Economist of the World Bank | |
| In office 1972–1982 | |
| President | Robert McNamara Alden W. Clausen |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Anne Osborn Krueger |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Hollis Burnley Chenery 6 January 1918 Richmond, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | 1 September 1994 (aged 76) Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S. |
| Spouses | Louise Seamster
(m. 1942; div. 1964)Mary Montgomery
(m. 1970; died 1993) |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | Christopher Chenery (Father) Penny Chenery (Sister) |
| Education | University of Arizona (BSc) University of Oklahoma (BSc) California Institute of Technology (MSc) University of Virginia (MA) Harvard University (PhD) |
| Academic career | |
| Field | Development economics |
| Institution | World Bank Harvard University Stanford University |
Hollis Burnley Chenery (January 6, 1918 – September 1, 1994) was an American economist well known for his pioneering contribution in the field of development economics.
Early life
[edit]Chenery was born in Richmond, son of Christopher Chenery, a businessman and horseman. He was educated in Virginia, Pelham Manor, New York and at the University of Arizona (BSc Mathematics, 1939), the University of Oklahoma (BSc Engineering, 1941), and California Institute of Technology (MSc Engineering, 1943). He served in the United States Army Air Forces in World War II. After the war he earned degrees from the University of Virginia (MA Economics, 1947) and Harvard University (PhD Economics, 1950). His doctoral dissertation, entitled Engineering Bases of Economic Analysis, was written under the direction of Wassily Leontief.
Career
[edit]He worked as a professor of economics at Stanford from 1952 to 1961, as a Guggenheim fellow in 1961 and joined the United States Agency for International Development in 1961, and rose to become an assistant administrator.[1]
In 1965 Chenery became a professor of economics at Harvard. His 1966 article with Alan Strout, "Foreign assistance and economic development",[2] provided a macro-economic theory of development aid's effectiveness which remained, for the following 20 years or more, the most explicit model available.[3]
Chenery worked as the World Bank's vice president for development policy from 1972 through to 1982.[1] Serving under the presidency of Robert McNamara during most of his time at the Bank, Chenery oversaw an increase in the Bank's research capacity. Although his earlier work had played a part in fixing the focus of aid on targets for overall economic growth, Chenery in the 1970s investigated ways in which this growth could take place in such a way as to benefit the poor. This research – which was published notably in the 1974 book Redistribution with growth – helped the Bank move to a more poverty-focused approach in the mid- and late 1970s.[4]
Chenery's work was wide-ranging but might be summarised as involving the analysis of patterns of development, the use of a two-gap model and multi-sectoral analysis.[5]
Horse racing fame
[edit]After his father died in January 1973, his sister Penny Chenery raced Secretariat on behalf of the family. Secretariat became the first horse in 25 years to win the American Triple Crown, with record-setting victories in the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. After Secretariat's victory in the Belmont Stakes, Hollis Chenery led the horse down the walkway to the winner's circle as cameras took pictures and the crowd gave a standing ovation. He was played by Dylan Baker in the 2010 film Secretariat.
Selected works
[edit]His major works include:
- Chenery, Hollis. (1952). Overcapacity and the acceleration principle., Econometrica
- Abramovitz, Moses (1959), "The welfare interpretation of secular trends in national income and product", in Abramovitz, Moses; et al. (eds.), The allocation of economic resources: essays in honor of Bernard Francis Haley, Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, OCLC 490147128. ISBN 9780804705684.
- Chenery, Hollis; Clark, P. (1959). Interindustry economics.
- Chenery, Hollis. (1960). Patterns of industrial growth., American Economic Review
- Chenery, Hollis. (1961). Comparative advantage and development policy., American Economic Review
- Chenery, Hollis; Strout, A. (1966). Foreign assistance and economic development., American Economic Review
- Chenery, Hollis; et al. (1971). Studies in development planning.
- Chenery, Hollis; et al. (1974). Redistibution with growth: an approach to policy.
- Chenery, Hollis; Syrquin, R. (1975). Patterns of development, 1950–1970.
- Chenery, Hollis. (1975). A structuralist approach to development policy, 1975., American Economic Review
- Chenery, Hollis. (1979). Structural change and development policy.
- Chenery, Hollis. (1983). Interaction between theory and observation, world development.[6]
- Chenery, Hollis; Srinivasan, T.N. (1988). Handbook of development economics. Vol. 1. Amsterdam New York New York, N.Y., U.S.A: North-Holland Sole distributors for the U.S.A. and Canada, Elsevier Science Pub. Co. ISBN 9780444703378.
- Chenery, Hollis; Srinivasan, T.N. (1988). Handbook of development economics. Vol. 2. Amsterdam New York New York, N.Y., U.S.A: North-Holland Sole distributors for the U.S.A. and Canada, Elsevier Science Pub. Co. ISBN 9780444703385.
References
[edit]- ^ a b Page, Eric (September 5, 1994), "Obituary Hollis B. Chenery Dies at 77; Economist for the World Bank", New York Times
- ^ Chenery, Hollis B.; Strout, Alan M. (1966). "Foreign Assistance and Economic Development". The American Economic Review. 56 (4): 679–733. ISSN 0002-8282. JSTOR 1813524.
- ^ Riddell, Roger (1987). Foreign aid reconsidered. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 89–95. ISBN 0-8018-3546-1. OCLC 15630613.
- ^ "Robert Strange McNamara". The World Bank. Retrieved 2021-03-10.
- ^ Syrquin, M.; Taylor, T.; Westphal, Larry E., eds. (1984). Economic Structure and Performance: Essays in Honor of Hollis B. Chenery. Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-680060-X.
- ^ History of Economic Thought Website Archived 2004-07-01 at the Wayback Machine
External links
[edit]
- 1918 births
- 1994 deaths
- 20th-century American economists
- American officials of the United Nations
- California Institute of Technology alumni
- American development economists
- Economists from Arizona
- Economists from New York (state)
- Fellows of the Econometric Society
- Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
- Harvard University faculty
- People from Pelham Manor, New York
- Stanford University Department of Economics faculty
- United States Army Air Forces soldiers
- United States Army personnel of World War II
- University of Arizona alumni
- University of Oklahoma alumni
- University of Virginia alumni
- World Bank Chief Economists