Editing James Tobin (section)

===Early life===
Tobin was born on March 5, 1918, in [[Champaign, Illinois]]. His father was Louis Michael Tobin (b. 1879), a journalist working at the [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]]. His father had fought in [[World War I]], was a member of the first [[Fraternities and sororities|Greek]] organization at Illinois ([[Delta Tau Delta]] fraternity Beta Upsilon chapter), and was credited as the inventor of "Homecoming." His mother, Margaret Edgerton Tobin (b. 1893), was a social worker. Tobin attended the [[University Laboratory High School of Urbana, Illinois]], a [[laboratory school]] in the university's campus.<ref name="autobio">[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1981/tobin-autobio.html Tobin, James. "Autobiography"], published in ''Nobel Lectures. Economics 1981–1990'', Editor [[Karl-Göran Mäler]], World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1992</ref>

In 1935, on his father's advice, Tobin took the entrance exams for [[Harvard University]]. Despite no special preparation for the exams, he passed and was admitted with a national scholarship from the university. During his studies he first read [[John Maynard Keynes|Keynes]]' ''[[The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money]]'', published in 1936. Tobin graduated ''[[summa cum laude]]'' in 1939 with a thesis centered on a critical analysis of Keynes' mechanism for introducing equilibrium [[involuntary unemployment]]. His first published article, in 1941, was based on this senior thesis.<ref name="solowbio">{{cite journal |author=Solow Robert |author-link=Robert Solow |year=2004 |title=James Tobin |journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society |volume=148 |issue=3}}</ref>

Tobin immediately started graduate studies, also at Harvard, earning his [[Master of Arts|AM]] degree in 1940. In 1941, he interrupted graduate studies to work for the [[Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply]] and the [[War Production Board]] in [[Washington, D.C.]] The next year, after the United States entered [[World War II]], he enlisted in the [[US Navy]], spending the war as an officer on [[destroyers]] including (among possibly others) the {{USS|Kearny|DD-432}}.<ref>Reference to USS ''Kearny'' in c. 1965 letter to fellow shipmate Clitus H. Marvin</ref> At the end of the war he returned to Harvard and resumed studies, receiving his Ph.D. in 1947 with a thesis on the [[consumption function]] written under the supervision of [[Joseph Schumpeter]].<ref name="cowles">{{cite book |first=James |last=Tobin |chapter=James Tobin |title=Lives of the Laureates, Seven Nobel Economists |editor-first=William |editor-last=Breit |editor2-first=Roger W. |editor2-last=Spencer |publisher=The MIT Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England |year=1986 |chapter-url=http://cowles.econ.yale.edu/archive/reprints/tobin_86_laureate.htm |archive-date=August 26, 2003 |url=http://cowles.econ.yale.edu/archive/reprints/tobin_86_laureate.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030826020431/http://cowles.econ.yale.edu/archive/reprints/tobin_86_laureate.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1947 Tobin was elected a Junior Fellow of Harvard's [[Society of Fellows]], which allowed him the freedom and funding to spend the next three years studying and doing research.