William Jaffé
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William Jaffé (1898-1980), an American economist and historian of economic thought, was associated with York University for the last ten years of his life as a professor in the Economics Department. Prior to his tenure at York, Jaffé had spent the period 1928-1966 at Northwestern University (Illinois), where he began his lifelong work on the French nineteenth-century economist, Léon Walras.
His contribution to Walras scholarship was threefold: in the first place he furnished English-speaking economists with access to the French economist's main theoretical work with his translation of The elements of pure economics; second, by editing three volumes of Walras's correspondence, he provided a sourcebook of bibliographical, biographical, scientific, social and economic information about Walras and his century that is relevant for understanding the genesis of Walras's work and the development of neoclassical economics. Third, in his many essays on Walras, he treated most of the themes that are important in Walras's work, and many of the questions that can be asked about his life and impact on economic thought. Thus he provided an exposition and evaluation of Walras's theories, as well as a history of the circumstances and sources that were important in their development (Blaug, 1999).
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[edit] Honours
- Member of the French Legion of Honour
- Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Science and Letters
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
- Fellow of the British Academy.
- Distinguished Fellow of the History of Economics Society
[edit] Publications
- Walras, Léon (1965). Correspondence of Léon Walras and related papers. Edited by William Jaffé. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
- Jaffé, William, and Donald A. Walker (ed.) (1983). Essays on Walras. Cambridge University Press.
[edit] Secondary sources
- Blaug, Mark (ed.) - Who's who in economics (3d edition), 1999.
- Hollander, Samuel (1981). "In Memoriam: William Jaffé, 1898 - 1980", CanJE, reprinted in Collected Essays/II The Literature of Political Economy (1998).
- Walker, Donald A. (1981). "William Jaffé, Historian of Economic Thought, 1898 - 1980", AER
- --- (1983). "William Jaffé, Officier de liaison intellectuel" in: Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, Vol.1, The Craft of the Historian of Economic Thought
