Editing Ragnar Frisch (section)

== Background and education ==

===Family and early years===
[[File:Anton Frisch (1865-1928).jpg|thumb|left|upright|Ragnar Frisch's father, Anton Frisch (1865–1928), goldsmith in Oslo, and a member of the [[Frisch family]] of silver miners and goldsmiths]]
Ragnar Frisch<ref name=autobio>{{cite book |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1969/frisch-autobio.html |last=Frisch |first=Ragnar |chapter=Autobiography |title=Nobel Lectures, Economics 1969–1980 |editor-first=Assar |editor-last=Lindbeck |editor-link=Assar Lindbeck |publisher=[[World Scientific Publishing Co.]] |location=[[Singapore]] |year=1992 |access-date=2006-11-20 |archive-date=2013-06-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605233438/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1969/frisch-autobio.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> was born on 3 March 1895 in [[Oslo|Christiania]] as the son of [[goldsmith|gold-]] and [[silversmith]] Anton Frisch and Ragna Fredrikke Frisch (née Kittilsen). The [[Frisch (Norwegian family)|Frisch family]] had emigrated from Germany to [[Kongsberg]] in Norway in the 17th century and his ancestors had worked for the [[Kongsberg Silver Mines]] for generations;<ref>{{cite book |last=Huhnhäuser |first=Alfred |title=Die deutsche Einwanderung in Kongsberg |location=[[Oslo]] |year=1944 |series=Beiträge zur Geschichte des Deutschtums in Norwegen}}</ref> Ragnar's grandfather Antonius Frisch had become a goldsmith in Christiania in 1856. His family had thus worked with precious metals like silver and gold for at least 300 years.

Being expected to continue his family business, Frisch became an [[Apprenticeship|apprentice]] in the David Andersen workshop in Oslo. However at his mother's advice, while doing his apprenticeship Frisch also started studying at the [[Royal Frederick University]]. His chosen topic was economics, as it seemed to be "the shortest and easiest study" available at the university,<ref name=autobio/> and passed his degree in 1919. In 1920 he also passed his handicraftsman tests and became a partner in his father's workshop.

===Early career and further education===
In 1921 Frisch received a fellowship from the university which enabled him to spend three years studying economics and mathematics in [[France]] and [[England]]. After his return to [[Norway]], in 1923, although the family's business was having difficulties, he continued his scientific activity, believing that research, not jewellery, was his real calling.<ref name=Bjerkholt>Olav Bjerkholt (2000), "A turning point in the development of Norwegian economics – the establishment of the University Institute of Economics in 1932". Memorandum No 36/2000, University of Oslo</ref> He published a few papers about [[probability theory]], started teaching at the University of Oslo during 1925 and, in 1926, he obtained the Dr. Philos. degree with a thesis in [[mathematical statistics]].

Also in 1926, Frisch published an article<ref>"Quantitative formulation of the laws of economic theory" (see Selected Publications)</ref> outlining his view that economics should follow the same path towards theoretical and empirical quantization that other sciences, especially physics, had followed. During the same year, he published his seminal article "Sur un problème d'économie pure" starting the implementation of his own quantization programme. The article offered theoretical axiomatizations which result in a precise specification of both [[ordinal utility|ordinal]] and [[cardinal utility]], followed by an empirical estimation of the cardinal specification. Frisch also started lecturing a course on [[production theory]], introducing a mathematization of the subject.

Frisch received a fellowship from the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] to visit the [[United States]] in 1927. There, seeking other economists interested in the new mathematical and statistical approaches to economics, he associated with [[Irving Fisher]], [[Wesley Clair Mitchell]], [[Allyn Young]] and [[Henry Schultz]]. He wrote a paper analyzing the role of [[investment (macroeconomics)|investment]] in explaining [[economic fluctuations]]. Wesley Mitchell, who had just written a book on [[business cycle]]s, popularized Frisch's paper which was introducing new advanced methods.<ref name=Bjerkholt/>

===Later career===
Although his fellowship was extended to travel to [[Italy]] and France, the next year Frisch had to return to Norway because of his father's death. He spent one year to modernize and recapitalize his family's workshop by selling family assets and to find a jeweller to manage the business for him. Then he resumed academic work, in 1928 being appointed Associate Professor of statistics and economics at the Oslo University. During 1927 and 1928 Frisch published a series of articles on the statistics of time series. In 1929 he published his first important essay on econometric methodology, "Correlation and scatter in statistical variables",<ref>{{cite journal | author = J. W. | year = 1931 | title = Frisch (Ragnar): Correlation and Scatter in Statistical Variables. | journal = Journal of the Royal Statistical Society | volume = 94 | issue = 1 | pages = 95–98 | doi = 10.2307/2341822 | jstor = 2341822 }}</ref> followed in the same year by "Statics and dynamics in economic theory", which introduced dynamics in economic analysis.<ref name=SP>See Selected Publications</ref>

Frisch became a full Professor at the university in 1931. He also founded at the university the Rockefeller-funded Institute of Economics in 1932 and became its Director of Research.

Ragnar Frisch received the Antonio Feltrinelli prize from the [[Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei]] in 1961 and the [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences]] in 1969 (awarded jointly with [[Jan Tinbergen]]) for "having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes".<ref>{{cite web| url = http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1969/index.html| title = The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1969}}</ref> He was a member of both the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] and the [[American Philosophical Society]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ragnar Anton Kittil Frisch |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/ragnar-anton-kittil-frisch |access-date=2022-08-31 |website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Ragnar+Frisch&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2022-08-31 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

During the [[occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany]], Frisch was arrested, along with 13 other University of Oslo faculty members and more than 100 students, in October 1943.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1944 |title=Arrest of Professor Frisch |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1905570 |journal=Econometrica |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=93–93 |issn=0012-9682}}</ref> He was imprisoned in [[Bredtveit concentration camp]] from 17 October 1943, then in [[Berg concentration camp]] from 22 November 1943, then in [[Grini detention camp]] from 9 December 1943 to 8 October 1944.<ref>{{cite book|editor=Ottosen, Kristian|editor-link=Kristian Ottosen|title=Nordmenn i fangenskap 1940–1945|edition=2nd|year=2004|publisher=Universitetsforlaget|location=Oslo|language=no|isbn=978-82-15-00288-0|page=226}}</ref>

===Family===
Frisch married Marie Smedal in 1920 and they had a daughter, Ragna (b. 1938<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Statistics Norway Research Department|last=Bjerkholt|first=Olav|title=Ragnar Frisch 1895-1995|url=https://www.ssb.no/a/histstat/doc/doc_199403.pdf}}</ref>). His granddaughter, [[Nadia Hasnaoui]] (Ragna's child), became a Norwegian television performer. After his first wife died in 1952, he remarried in 1953 with childhood friend Astrid Johannessen.<ref name=autobio/> who died in 1980.