Editing William Vickrey (section)

== Early years ==
Vickrey was born in [[Victoria, British Columbia]] to Charles Vernon Vickrey, a Congregationalist minister, and Ada Eliza Spencer. The family moved to New York City in William's childhood, where his father was General Secretary of the [[Near East Foundation|American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief]], one of the nation's first humanitarian assistance organizations.<ref name="Read">{{cite book |last=Read |first=Colin |title=The Public Financiers: Ricardo, George, Clark, Ramsey, Mirrlees, Vickrey, Wicksell, Musgrave, Buchanan, Tiebout, and Stiglitz |year=2016 |publisher=Springer}}</ref>

Vickrey attended high school at [[Phillips Academy]] in [[Andover, Massachusetts]]. After obtaining his [[Bachelor of Science|B.S.]] in Mathematics at [[Yale University]] in 1935, he went on to complete his M.A. at [[Columbia University]] in 1937. He stayed at Columbia for a [[PhD]], which he completed 1948 with a 500-page dissertation entitled "An Agenda for Progressive Taxation."<ref name="Arnott"/> Vickrey's doctoral work was interrupted by [[World War II]], when he was enlisted to work for the U.S. [[National Resources Planning Board]] and later the [[United States Department of Treasury|Treasury Department]]'s  Division of Tax Research.<ref name="Read"/>