Kenneth J. Arrow

Stanford University, SFP 2013–2017

---

Kenneth J. Arrow was Professor Emeritus of Economics and of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University, and Senior Fellow of the Stanford Institute for Policy Research and of the Center for Health Policy there. He taught at Stanford University, Harvard University, and the University of Chicago, and was a Visiting Professor or Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Churchill College (Cambridge), All Souls College (Oxford), and the University of Siena. He gave courses in microeconomic theory, mathematical statistics, econometrics, income distribution, the economics of information, and the history of economic thought.

Dr. Arrow was born in 1921. He graduated from the College of the City of New York (1940) and received an M. A. (mathematics, 1941) and Ph. D. (economics, 1951) from Columbia University. He was the author of 21 books and 279 papers in learned journals or edited volumes.

His principal research fields were social choice, general equilibrium, economics of uncertainty and information, inventory theory, optimal growth with special reference to environmental constraints, health economics, and the economics of innovation.

He received several honors, including the John Bates Clark Medal (American Economic Association), Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science, National Medal of Science, von Neumann Prize, and Medal of the University of Paris. He was also President of several professional societies and a member or fellow of several honorary societies. He was especially proud that three students and two close collaborators have won the Nobel Memorial Prize.