“Triangle Man” is now 100 years previous.
Lengthy-time College of Chicago economist Arnold Harberger turned 100 years previous as we speak. Until I’m mistaken, he’s nonetheless going comparatively robust, even within the classroom.
The Wikipedia article on a few of Harberger’s accomplishments is definitely fairly good and so I received’t attempt to restate them.
Slightly, I’ll inform 3 tales about my interactions with, and observations of, Al.
Primary: I first met Al at a cocktail occasion on the dwelling of my colleague Ron Hansen within the late Seventies after I was a younger assistant professor of economics on the College of Rochester’s Graduate Faculty of Administration (now the Simon Faculty.) To me he was already a god due to capability to make use of primary worth principle to succeed in essential conclusions. However he didn’t act like a god. He was a standard and really welcoming human being.
Quantity two: Once I was on the Cato Institute in 1979, Al helped me with information for an article that my good friend Roy Childs was writing. Right here are the small print.
Quantity three: Whereas the Chatham Home rule applies to proceedings on the Mont Pelerin Society conferences, I can hue to the spirit of the rule in telling this story with out naming names. At one of many occasions on the MPS conferences on the Hoover Establishment in January 2020, there was a breakfast, if I recall accurately, at which Al spoke; he talked about what was happening in Chile. Within the Seventies and later, Harberger had been crucial, way more essential than Milton Friedman, in serving to transfer Chile’s financial system in a free-market route. I talk about his position very briefly in my evaluate of Sebastian Edwards’ glorious 2023 ebook, The Chile Venture: The Story of the Chicago Boys and the Downfall of Financial Liberalism. (I might guess that his help of the Chicago Boys, although he didn’t help Pinochet, is one purpose he by no means was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics.) He had a protracted and tender relationship with numerous “Chicago Boys” from not less than two generations and it was obvious in the way in which they questioned him and, to place it bluntly, confirmed their love for him.
If you happen to’re questioning why I name him “Triangle Man,” try this hyperlink. It’s a pleasant in depth and comprehensible remedy of Harberger’s traditional 1954 article within the American Financial Assessment, “Monopoly and Resource Allocation.” Economists had been stating for many years that monopoly induced deadweight loss however he was the primary to attempt to estimate the scale of the deadweight loss. Harberger discovered that, for U.S. manufacturing, it was unlikely to be above 0.1 p.c of GNP. (Gross Nationwide Product was the traditional measure of the scale of an financial system on the time.) There are, to make certain, numerous criticisms of his argument and estimate. The purpose is that he did it and nobody earlier than him had carried out so. The deadweight loss from monopoly is often measured by a triangle. Thus the nickname, one which was utilized in numerous skits placed on by College of Chicago college students and one which he wore proudly.
Observe: The pic above is of Al Harberger and me after his breakfast speak.
