Robert Giffen

For the U.S. Navy admiral, see Robert C. Giffen

Sir Robert Giffen KCB (22 July 1837 – 12 April 1910), was a Scottish statistician and economist. He was born at Strathaven, Lanarkshire.

He entered a solicitor's office in Glasgow, and while in that city attended courses at the university. He drifted into journalism, and after working for the Stirling Journal he went to London in 1862 and joined the staff of the Globe. He also assisted John Morley, when the latter edited the Fortnightly Review. In 1868 he became Walter Bagehot's assistant-editor on The Economist; and his services were also secured in 1873 as city editor of the Daily News, and later of The Times.

His high reputation as a financial journalist and statistician, gained in these years, led to his appointment in 1876 as head of the statistical department in the Board of Trade, and subsequently he became assistant secretary (1882) and finally controller-general (1892), retiring in 1897. In connection with his position as chief statistical adviser to the government, he was constantly employed in drawing up reports, giving evidence before commissions of inquiry, and acting as a government auditor, besides publishing a number of important essays on financial subjects. His principal publications were American Railways as Investments (1873), Essays on Finance (1879 and 1884), The Progress of the Working Classes (1884), The Growth of Capital (1890), The Case against Bimetallism (1892), and Economic Inquiries and Studies (1904).

He was president of the Statistical Society (now called the Royal Statistical Society) (1882-1884); and after being made a Companion of the Order of the Bath, in 1891 was created Knight Commander in the Order of the Bath. In 1892 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1894 he received the Guy Medal (gold) from the RSS. He was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1897.

Robert Giffen continued in later years to take a leading part in all public controversies connected with finance and taxation, and his high authority and practical experience were universally recognised. He was awarded a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1895.^[1] He died somewhat suddenly in Fort Augustus, Scotland on 12 April 1910.

The concept of a Giffen good is named after him. Alfred Marshall wrote in the third (1895) edition of his Principles of Economics:

As Mr. Giffen has pointed out, a rise in the price of bread makes so large a drain on the resources of the poorer labouring families and raises so much the marginal utility of money to them, that they are forced to curtail their consumption of meat and the more expensive farinaceous foods: and, bread being still the cheapest food which they can get and will take, they consume more, and not less of it.

Scholars have not been able to identify any passage in Giffen's writings where he pointed this out.

The main part of this entry is taken from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

References

R. S. Mason Robert Giffen and the Giffen Paradox, Philip Allan (1989)
A. E. Bateman, ‘Sir Robert Giffen’, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 73, (1910) pp. 529-533. (includes photograph)
F. Y. Edgeworth, ‘Sir Robert Giffen’, Economic Journal, 20, (1910) pp. 318-321.
(PDF) Sir Robert Giffen - Dead. New York Times. 13 April 1910. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=980CE1D81539E433A25750C1A9629C946196D6CF

^ "Sir Robert Giffen". The Times (London: The Times): p. 13. Wednesday, Apr 13, 1910;.

External links

Works written by or about Robert Giffen at Wikisource
Royal Society citation
Giffen correspondence
Alfred Marshall Principles of Economics Bk.III,Ch.VI in paragraph III.VI.17

Academic offices
Preceded by James Caird (1816-1892)	President of the Royal Statistical Society 1882–1884	Succeeded by Rawson W. Rawson

Guy Medallists

Gold Medallists

Charles Booth (1892) · Robert Giffen (1894) · J. Athelstane Baines (1900) · Francis Ysidro Edgeworth (1907) · Patrick G. Craigie (1908) · G. Udny Yule (1911) · T.H.C. Stevenson (1920) · A. William Flux (1930) · A.L. Bowley (1935) · Major Greenwood (1945) · R.A. Fisher (1946) · A. Bradford Hill (1953) · E.S. Pearson (1955) · Frank Yates (1960) · Harold Jeffreys (1962) · Jerzy Neyman (1966) · M.G. Kendall (1968) · M.S. Bartlett (1969) · Harald Cramér (1972) · David Cox (1973) · G.A. Barnard (1975) · Roy Allen (1978) · D.G. Kendall (1981) · Henry Daniels (1984) · Bernard Benjamin (1986) · Robin Plackett (1987) · Peter Armitage (1990) · George E. P. Box (1993) · Peter Whittle (1996) · Michael Healy (1999) · D.V. Lindley (2002) · John Nelder (2005) · James Durbin (2008) · C.R. Rao (2011)

Silver Medallists

John Glover (1893) · Augustus Sauerbeck (1894) · A.L. Bowley (1895) · F.J. Atkinson (1897) · C.S. Loch (1899) · Richard Crawford (1900) · Thomas A. Welton (1901) · R.H. Hooker (1902) · Yves Guyot (1903) · D.A. Thomas (1904) · R.H. Rew (1905) · W.H. Shaw (1906) · N.A. Humphreys (1907) · Edward Brabrook (1909) · G.H. Wood (1910) · R. Dudfield (1913) · S. Rowson (1914) · S.J. Chapman (1915) · J. Shield Nicholson (1918) · J.C. Stamp (1919) · A. William Flux (1921) · H.W. Macrosty (1927) · Ethel Newbold (1928) · H.E. Soper (1930) · J.H. Jones (1934) · E.C. Snow (1935) · R.G. Hawtrey (1936) · E.C. Ramsbottom (1938) · L. Isserlis (1939) · H. Leak (1940) · M.G. Kendall (1945) · H. Campion (1950) · F.A.A. Menzler (1951) · M.S. Bartlett (1952) · J.O. Irwin (1953) · L.H.C. Tippett (1954) · D.G. Kendall (1955) · Henry Daniels (1957) · G.A. Barnard (1958) · E.C. Fieller (1960) · D.R. Cox (1961) · P.V. Sukhatme (1962) · George E. P. Box (1964) · C.R. Rao (1965) · Peter Whittle (1966) · D.V. Lindley (1968) · Robin Plackett (1973) · James Durbin (1976) · John Nelder (1977) · Peter Armitage (1978) · Michael Healy (1979) · M. Stone (1980) · John Kingman (1981) · Henry Wynn (1982) · Julian Besag (1983) · J.C. Gittins (1984) · A. Bissell, W. Pridmore (1985) · Richard Peto (1986) · John Copas (1987) · J. Aitchison (1988) · F.P. Kelly (1989) · David Clayton (1990) · R.L. Smith (1991) · Robert Curnow (1992) · A.F.M. Smith (1993) · David Spiegelhalter (1994) · B.W. Silverman (1995) · Stephan Lauritzen (1996) · Peter Diggle (1997) · Harvey Goldstein (1998) · Peter Green (1999) · Walter Gilks (2000) · Philip Dawid (2001) · David Hand (2002) · Kanti Mardia (2003) · Peter Donnelly (2004) · Peter McCullagh (2005) · Michael Titterington (2006) · Howell Tong (2007) · Gareth Roberts (2008) · Sylvia Richardson (2009) · I.M. Johnstone (2010) · P.G. Hall (2011)

Bronze Medallists

William Gemmell Cochran (1936) · R.F. George (1938) · W.J. Jennett (1949) · Peter Armitage (1962) · James Durbin (1966) · F. Downton (1967) · Robin Plackett (1968) · M.C. Pike (1969) · P.G. Moore (1970) · D.J. Bartholomew (1971) · G.N. Wilkinson (1974) · A.F. Bissell (1975) · P.L. Goldsmith (1976) · A.F.M. Smith (1977) · Philip Dawid (1978) · T.M.F. Smith (1979) · A.J. Fox (1980) · S.J. Pocock (1982) · Peter McCullagh (1983) · Bernard Silverman (1984) · David Spiegelhalter (1985) · D.F. Hendry (1986) · Peter Green (1987) · S.C. Darby (1988) · S.M. Gore (1989) · Valerie Isham (1990) · M.G. Kenward (1991) · C. Jennison (1992) · J.A. Tawn (1993) · R.F.A. Poultney (1994) · I. Johnstone (1995) · J.N.S. Matthews (1996) · Gareth Roberts (1997) · D. Firth (1998) · P.W.F. Smith, J. Forster (1999) · J. Wakefield (2000) · Guy Nason (2001) · Geert Molenberghs (2002) · Peter Lynn (2003) · Nicola Best (2004) · Steve Brooks (2005) · Matthew Stephens (2006) · Paul Fearnhead (2007) · Fiona Steele (2008) · Chris Holmes (2009) · O. Papaspiliopoulos (2010) · N. Meinshausen (2011)

Persondata
Name	Giffen, Robert
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	22 July 1837
Place of birth
Date of death	12 April 1910
Place of death