Richard Ruggles

Richard Francis Ruggles (1916– March 4, 2001) was an American economist[1] known for "developing accounting tools for measuring national income and improving price indexes used in formulating government policy."[2]

Early life and education

Ruggles was born June 15, 1916, in Columbus, Ohio. He spent most of his youth in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where his father, Clyde O. Ruggles, also an economist, served as the dean of Harvard Business School. Ruggles later pursued both undergraduate and graduate economic studies at Harvard.[3] In 1942, he was awarded a PhD for his thesis titled Price Structure and Distribution over the Cycle.[4]

World War II and academic career

In 1943, Ruggles traveled to London and joined the Office of Strategic Services, where he used photographs of destroyed German tank serial numbers to estimate production rates at different factories, solving the German tank problem.[3][5]

Ruggles was a member of the economics department at Yale from 1946 to 1985, serving as chairman from 1969 to 1972. Additionally, he did research for government agencies, the United Nations, the Ford Foundation and the National Bureau of Economic Research.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Tobin, J. (2001). "In Memoriam: Richard Ruggles (1916-2001)" (PDF). Review of Income and Wealth 47 (3): 405–408. doi:10.1111/1475-4991.00025.
  2. ↑ "Richard Ruggles, Noted Economic Statistician, Dies". Yale Bulletin. March 23, 2001. Retrieved January 9, 2014.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Feder, Barnaby J. (March 10, 2001). "Richard Ruggles, 84, Economist; Developed Measurement Tools". New York Times. Retrieved January 9, 2014.
  4. ↑ Ruggles, Richard. "Price Structure and Distribution over the Cycle". ProQuest. Retrieved January 9, 2014.
  5. ↑ Ruggles, R.; Brodie, H. (1947). "An Empirical Approach to Economic Intelligence in World War II". Journal of the American Statistical Association 42 (237): 72. doi:10.1080/01621459.1947.10501915. JSTOR 2280189.