Agatha Chapman

Agatha Chapman
Born (1907-05-06)May 6, 1907
England
Died October 17, 1963(1963-10-17) (aged 56)
Montreal
Field Economics
School or tradition
 National accounts
Influences Richard Stone
Keynes
Marx
Contributions National accounts

Agatha Chapman (6 May 1907 – 17 October 1963) was an economist at the Canadian Bureau of National Statistics from 1942–47. She was the only female to attend the first United Nations Sub-Committee on National Income Statistics in December 1945, which led to the United Nations System of National Accounts.[1] She so impressed Richard Stone with her grasp of national accounting that he insisted her name be added to the official report of the meeting.[2] After her acquittal for 'aiding Soviet spies' in the Gouzenko affair,[3] often credited as a triggering event for the Cold War,[4] she was ostracized from the Canadian Civil Service.[2]

She went on to spend three years at Cambridge University when it was the epicentre of postwar national accounting. In 1953 her book, a study of British wages and salaries in the interwar period, was published by Cambridge University Press. She returned to Canada to form a research consultancy that applied national accounting to the needs of unions and workers, where she married an American who had left the US due to McCarthyism. Chapman's income dwindled and, suffering from arthritis, she committed suicide on 17 October 1963.[2]

Works

References

  1. ↑ "Sub-committee on National Income Statistics, 1947. Measurement of National Income and the construction of social accounts" (PDF). United Nations. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 "The trial and tribulations of Miss Agatha Chapman: statistics in a Cold War climate". The Free Library. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
  3. ↑ Knight, Amy (2007). How the Cold War Began: The Igor Gouzenko Affair and the Hunt for Soviet Spies. Carroll & Graf. ISBN 978-0-7867-1938-9.
  4. ↑ "Soviet Defector Believed Beginner of Cold War". Toledo Blade. 25 December 1984. Retrieved 2 March 2014.

External links


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