Editing Ragnar Frisch

{{Short description|Norwegian economist (1895–1973)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Ragnar Frisch
| image             = Uio frisch 2006 0025.jpg
| caption           = Ragnar Frisch, {{circa|before 1944}}
| image_size        = 
| birth_name        = Ragnar Anton Kittil Frisch
| birth_date        = {{birth date|1895|3|3|df=y}}
| birth_place       = [[Oslo|Kristiania]], [[Norway]]
| death_date        = {{death date and age|1973|1|31|1895|3|3|df=y}}
| death_place       = [[Oslo]], [[Norway]]
| nationality       = Norwegian
| field             = [[Economics]]
| work_institutions = [[University of Oslo]]
| alma_mater        = [[University of Oslo]]
| known_for         = [[Econometrics]]<br />[[Production theory basics|Production theory]]<br />[[Frisch elasticity]]<br />[[Frisch–Waugh–Lovell theorem]]
| doctoral_students = [[Olav Reiersøl]] <br/> [[Trygve Haavelmo]]<ref>{{cite web| url = https://academictree.org/econ/tree.php?pid=740232| title = Ragnar Frisch on Econometree}}</ref>
| prizes            = [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences]] (1969)
}}

'''Ragnar Anton Kittil Frisch''' (3 March 1895 – 31 January 1973) was an influential [[Norway|Norwegian]] [[economist]] and [[econometrician]] known for being one of the major contributors to establishing economics as a quantitative and statistically informed science in the early 20th century. He coined the term [[econometrics]] in 1926 for utilising statistical methods to describe economic systems, as well as the terms [[microeconomics]] and [[macroeconomics]] in 1933, for describing individual and aggregate economic systems, respectively.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Ragnar Frisch {{!}} Norwegian economist {{!}} Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ragnar-Frisch|access-date=2021-11-11|website=www.britannica.com|language=en}}</ref><ref name="nbl.snl.no">{{Citation|last=Bjerkholt|first=Olav|title=Ragnar Frisch|date=2020-02-25|url=http://nbl.snl.no/Ragnar_Frisch|work=Norsk biografisk leksikon|language=nb|access-date=2021-11-11}}</ref><ref name="Ragnar Frisch">{{Cite web|title=Ragnar Frisch|url=https://www.hetwebsite.net/het/profiles/frisch.htm|access-date=2021-11-11|website=www.hetwebsite.net}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Ragnar Frisch|url=https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Frisch.html|access-date=2021-11-11|website=Econlib|language=en-US}}</ref> He was the first to develop a statistically informed model of business cycles in 1933. Later work on the model, together with [[Jan Tinbergen]], won the first [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences]] in 1969.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1969|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1969/frisch/facts/|access-date=2021-11-11|website=NobelPrize.org|language=en-US}}</ref>

Frisch became [[Doctor of Philosophy|dr.philos.]] with a thesis on mathematics and statistics at the [[University of Oslo]] in 1926''.'' After his doctoral thesis, he spent five years researching in the United States at the [[University of Minnesota]] and [[Yale University]].<ref name="Ragnar Frisch"/> After teaching briefly at Yale from 1930–31, he was offered a full professorship in economics, which he declined after pressures by colleagues to return to the University of Oslo. After returning to Oslo, Frisch was first appointed by the [[King-in-Council]] as Professor of Economics and Statistics at the [[Faculty of Law, University of Oslo]] (then the ''Royal Frederick University'') in 1931, before becoming leader of the newly founded Institute of Economics at the University of Oslo in 1932.<ref name="nbl.snl.no"/><ref>{{Cite web|title=The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1969|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1969/frisch/facts/|access-date=2021-11-11|website=NobelPrize.org|language=en-US}}</ref> He remained at the University of Oslo until his retirement in 1965.

Frisch was one of the founders of the [[Econometric Society]] in 1930, and edited the journal ''[[Econometrica]]'' for its first 21 years.<ref name=":0" /> He has given name to the [[Frisch Medal]], which is awarded every year by the [[Econometric Society]] for the best paper in econometrics published in the last five years, as well as the Frisch-centre for Applied Economic Analysis at the University of Oslo.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Gaustadalleen 21|first=Kontakt Adresse|title=Om Frischsenteret - Frischsenteret|url=https://www.frisch.uio.no/om-oss/index.html|access-date=2021-11-11|website=www.frisch.uio.no|language=no}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Awards {{!}} The Econometric Society|url=https://www.econometricsociety.org/society/awards|access-date=2021-11-11|website=www.econometricsociety.org|language=en}}</ref> The Grand Auditorium at the Institute of Economics, University of Oslo also bears his name.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Telefon|first1=Besøksadresse Sognsveien 77 0855 OSLO Postadresse Postboks 1095 Blindern 0317 OSLO|last2=faks|title=Frisch- og Haavelmo-jubileum: Dei valde korte, lette studium og fekk Nobelprisen begge to - Økonomisk institutt (ØI)|url=https://www.sv.uio.no/econ/forskning/aktuelt/aktuelle-saker/2019/frisch-haavelmo-jubileum.html|access-date=2021-11-11|website=www.sv.uio.no|language=no}}</ref>

== 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.

==Work==
Frisch was one of the founders of economics as a modern science. He made a number of significant advances in the field of economics and coined a number of new words including [[econometrics]] and [[macroeconomics]]. His 1926 paper on consumer theory helped set up [[Neo-Walrasian research]]. He formalized [[production theory]], especially in addressing nonallocable inputs leading to jointness, meaning less than full control, in production processes (see esp. Chapters 14 and 15).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Frisch |first1=Ragnar |title=Theory of Production |date=1965 |publisher=Rand McNally and Company |location=Chicago, IL}}</ref>

In econometrics he worked on time series (1927) and linear regression analysis (1934). With [[Frederick V. Waugh]], he introduced the celebrated [[Frisch–Waugh theorem]]  (''[[Econometrica]]'' 1933)  (sometimes referred to as the [[Frisch–Waugh–Lovell theorem]]). In [[oligopoly]] theory he developed the [[conjectural variation]] approach. Frisch also is credited with introducing the term "model" in its modern economic sense by Paul Samuelson, based on a 1930 Yale University lecture.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bjerkholt|first1=Olav|title=Ragnar Frisch and the Postwar Norwegian Economy: A Critical Comment on Sæther and Eriksen|journal=Econ Journal Watch|date=September 2014|volume=11|issue=3|pages=297–312|url=http://econjwatch.org/file_download/837/CompleteIssueSept2014.pdf|access-date=November 8, 2014}}</ref>

His 1933 work on impulse-propagation business cycles became one of the principles of modern [[New Classical economics|New Classical]] [[business cycle]] theory. He also helped introduce econometric modeling to government economic planning and accounting.

He was one of the founders of the [[Econometric Society]] and editor of ''Econometrica'' for over twenty years. The [[Frisch Medal]], so named in his honor, is given every two years for the best paper published in the aforementioned ''Econometrica'' in the previous five years.

Frisch's most important hobby was bee-keeping, for which Frisch performed genetic studies.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ragnar Frisch:Facts|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1969/frisch/facts/|website=nobelprize.org |access-date=2024-03-21}}</ref>

==Selected publications==
*{{cite journal |author=Frisch, Ragnar |title=Kvantitativ formulering av den teoretiske økonomikks lover [Quantitative formulation of the laws of economic theory] |journal=Statsøkonomisk Tidsskrift|year=1926 |volume=40 |pages=299–334}}
*{{cite journal |author=Frisch, Ragnar |title=Sur un problème d'économie pure [On a problem in pure economics] |journal=Norsk Matematisk Forenings Skrifter, Oslo|year=1926 |volume=1 |issue=16 |pages=1–40}}
*{{cite journal |author=Frisch, Ragnar |title=Sammenhengen mellem primærinvestering og reinvestering [The relationship between primary investment and reinvestment] |journal=Statsøkonomisk Tidsskrift|year=1927 |volume=41 |pages=117–152}}
*{{cite journal |author=Frisch, Ragnar |title=Correlation and scatter in statistical variables |journal=[[Nordic Statistical Journal]] |year=1929 |volume=1 |pages=36–102}}
*{{cite journal |author=Frisch, Ragnar |title=Statikk og dynamikk i den økonomiske teori [Statics and dynamics in economic theory] |journal=Nationaløkonomisk Tidsskrift|year=1929 |volume=67 |pages=321–379}}
*{{cite journal |author=Frisch, Ragnar |title=Propagation problems and impulse problems in dynamic economics|journal=Economic Essays in Honour of Gustav Cassel|year=1933|pages=171–205}}
*Frisch, Ragnar (1933). ''Pitfalls in the Statistical Construction of Demand and Supply Curves''. Leipzig: Hans Buske.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Allen |first=R. G. D. |date=1934 |title=Review of Pitfalls in the Statistical Construction of Demand and Supply Curves |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2548809 |journal=Economica |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=342–344 |doi=10.2307/2548809 |issn=0013-0427}}</ref>

There is a bibliography of Frisch's writings up to 1960 in
*{{cite journal |first=Kenneth J. |last=Arrow |title=The Work of Ragnar Frisch, Econometrician |journal=[[Econometrica]] |volume=28 |issue=2 |year=1960 |pages=175–192 |doi=10.2307/1907716 |jstor=1907716 }}
and there is a collection of selected essays
*{{cite book |editor-first=Olav |editor-last=Bjerkholt |year=1995 |title=Foundations of Modern Econometrics: The Selected Essays of Ragnar Frisch |others=2 volumes |location=Aldershot, UK |publisher=Edward Elgar }}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book|editor-last=Strøm|editor-first=Steinar|chapter=Ragnar Frisch and his Contributions to Economics|pages=3–108 |title=Econometrics and Economic Theory in the 20th Century|location=New York|publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1998|isbn=978-0-521-63365-9 }}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
*{{Nobelprize}}
*[http://www.nobel-winners.com/Economics/ragnar_frisch.html Ragnar Frisch at nobel-winners.com]
*[https://ideas.repec.org/e/pfr8.html IDEAS/RePEc]
*{{Cite book |title=Ragnar Frisch (1895–1973) |url=http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Frisch.html |work=[[The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics]] |edition=2nd |series=[[Library of Economics and Liberty]] |publisher=[[Liberty Fund]] |year=2008 }}

{{s-start}}
{{s-aca}}
{{s-bef|before= 
|title=[[dean (education)|Dean]] of the [[Faculty of Law, University of Oslo]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[dean (education)|Dean]] of the [[Faculty of Law, University of Oslo]]|years=1942–1943}}
{{s-aft|after=}}
{{s-ach|aw}}
{{s-new|creation}}
{{s-ttl | title = [[List of Nobel Memorial Prize laureates in Economics|Laureate of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics]] | years = 1969 |alongside= [[Jan Tinbergen]] }}
{{s-aft | after = [[Paul A. Samuelson]] }}
{{s-end}}

{{Nobel laureates in economics 1969–1975}}
{{1969 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Presidents of the Econometric Society}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frisch, Ragnar Anton Kittil}}
[[Category:Econometricians]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Economics]]
[[Category:Norwegian Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Oslo]]
[[Category:University of Oslo alumni]]
[[Category:1895 births]]
[[Category:1973 deaths]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Econometric Society]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Econometric Society]]
[[Category:Bredtveit concentration camp survivors]]
[[Category:Berg concentration camp survivors]]
[[Category:Grini concentration camp survivors]]
[[Category:20th-century Norwegian economists]]
[[Category:Economics journal editors]]
[[Category:Norwegian people of German descent]]
[[Category:Corresponding fellows of the British Academy]]
[[Category:Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]