Bert F. Hoselitz
Encyclopedia
Berthold Frank Hoselitz taught Economics and Social Science at the University of Chicago between 1945 and 1978. His analysis of the role of cultural and sociological factors was influential in the newly emerging field of economic development
and stands in stark contrast with usual depictions of Chicago School
economists focusing on narrow models of self-interested maximizing behavior. He was the founding editor of one of most prominent journals in the field of economic development, Economic Development and Cultural Change
. At Carnegie Institute of Technology
in 1947–48, he taught a course in international economics that was the only course in Economics future Nobel Laureate John Nash took before Nash went on to write his path breaking thesis on game theory and bargaining.
between 1932 and 1937 and obtained a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree in 1936. During that time, he attended two seminars by Ludwig von Mises
before Mises departed Vienna in 1934. Hoselitz was a member of the Austrian Social Democratic Labor Party between 1928 and 1938. He left Vienna with his father and younger brother in 1938, when Nazi Germany annexed Austria. After an attempt to go to China, they went to England. In 1942, Hoselitz’s mother died in the Auschwitz concentration camp
. Through a U.S. Quaker organization, he was able to find a position at Manchester College
in Indiana and taught economics there between 1940-41. He then attended the University of Chicago
, obtaining his Master’s degree in 1945. In 1943, he served as a research assistant for Jacob Viner
at Yale. In 1945, he took a position as instructor in social sciences and then in 1946 as Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago.
In 1947-48, he held an appointment as Associate Professor of Economics at the Carnegie Institute of Technology
. While there he taught a course in International Economics in which John Nash was a student. Nash indicates that it was the only course in economics he took before he began graduate study in mathematics at Princeton where he wrote his pathbreaking dissertation at Princeton on game theory and bargaining. Nash credits Hoselitz with influencing his thinking on bargaining with the example of countries negotiating and bargaining on tariffs.
Hoselitz went back to the University of Chicago in 1948.
In 1951 he helped found the university's Research Center in Economic Development and Cultural Change and founded the center's journal Economic Development and Cultural Change
.
In 1953 he was promoted to Professor of Economics and the Social Sciences. Hoselitz served on and chaired a variety of interdisciplinary university committees. From 1952 to 1962 he took a variety of roles in international missions and conferences on development, and advised El Salvador, India, the U.S. Senate, and UNESCO
. Hoselitz retired in 1978, becoming professor emeritus. He continued to edit Economic Development and Cultural Change until 1985 and died in 1995.
’s Principles of Economics (1950), an important text in Austrian economics.
In the early 1950s, Hoselitz's work began to focus on the contrasts in social organization between economically advanced and economically backward countries. He wanted to develop a social science framework for examining the determinants of economic growth. The framework he developed drew heavily on the sociologist Talcott Parsons
's theory of social structure, especially what Parsons called “pattern variables of role-definition”.
Hoselitz made several distinctions between developed and underdeveloped countries based on these pattern variables: a) developed countries tend to be achievement-oriented, based on objective measures such as educational attainment, while developing countries have used ascribed status factors such as kinship and religion for assigning status and rewards; b) developed countries tend to use universalistic standards, for example in use of the rule of law, whereas developing countries tend more to act more on particularistic, personalized relationships such as caste systems or kinship networks; c) developed economies are characterized by extensive division of labor while developing economies tend to have a less-specialized workforce.
In linking together the two topics of economic development and cultural change, the founders and staff of the Center took the view that cooperative, interdisciplinary research would be required to address the relevant issues.
To facilitate “exploratory discussion of the problems of economic and cultural change”, the Center sponsored publication of the journal Economic Development and Cultural Change. Its first issue appeared in March, 1952. Initially established as essentially a newsletter for the Center for Research on Economic Development and Cultural Change, it went on under Hoselitz’s 33-year editorship to become one of the leading journals in the field of economic development. The journal focused on developing countries in the midst of on-going economic concerns with postwar reconstruction and emerging Cold War
tensions. It was also distinctive among development journals in emphasizing application of social science and interdisciplinary perspectives rather than simple advocacy or ad hoc generalizations.
Hoselitz can be seen as a maverick and intellectual outsider to the Chicago Economics department, home of the "Chicago School
" of thought. His employment of Parson’s pattern variables and his focus on cultural change contrasted to the Chicago department's emphasis on universal maximizing behavior. Hoselitz's writings acknowledge the likely possibility that top-down planners will be required to direct the course of economic development for under-developed economies, in contrast to the Chicago department's usual preference for laissez faire policies.
Hoselitz worked effectively with “mainstream” members of the Economics department. D. Gale Johnson was one of the founding participants in the Center for Research on Economic Development and Cultural Change, and Johnson succeeded Hoselitz as editor of Economic Development and Cultural Change.
Economic development
Economic development generally refers to the sustained, concerted actions of policymakers and communities that promote the standard of living and economic health of a specific area...
and stands in stark contrast with usual depictions of Chicago School
Chicago school
Chicago school may refer to:* Chicago school * Chicago school * Chicago school * Chicago school * Chicago school * Chicago School of Professional Psychology...
economists focusing on narrow models of self-interested maximizing behavior. He was the founding editor of one of most prominent journals in the field of economic development, Economic Development and Cultural Change
Economic Development and Cultural Change
Economic Development and Cultural Change is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press. It covers all aspects of the economics of developing countries, including education reform, immigration, debt bondage, ethnicity, land redistribution, and economic development...
. At Carnegie Institute of Technology
Carnegie Institute of Technology
The Carnegie Institute of Technology , is the name for Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering. It was first called the Carnegie Technical Schools, or Carnegie Tech, when it was founded in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie who intended to build a “first class technical school” in Pittsburgh,...
in 1947–48, he taught a course in international economics that was the only course in Economics future Nobel Laureate John Nash took before Nash went on to write his path breaking thesis on game theory and bargaining.
Biography
Hoselitz was born in 1913 in Vienna. He studied at the University of ViennaUniversity of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
between 1932 and 1937 and obtained a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree in 1936. During that time, he attended two seminars by Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was an Austrian economist, philosopher, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern Libertarian movement and the "Austrian School" of economic thought.-Biography:-Early life:...
before Mises departed Vienna in 1934. Hoselitz was a member of the Austrian Social Democratic Labor Party between 1928 and 1938. He left Vienna with his father and younger brother in 1938, when Nazi Germany annexed Austria. After an attempt to go to China, they went to England. In 1942, Hoselitz’s mother died in the Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
. Through a U.S. Quaker organization, he was able to find a position at Manchester College
Manchester College
Manchester College is a liberal arts and sciences college located in North Manchester, Indiana. It has an enrollment of approximately 1,200 students.-Principles:...
in Indiana and taught economics there between 1940-41. He then attended the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, obtaining his Master’s degree in 1945. In 1943, he served as a research assistant for Jacob Viner
Jacob Viner
Jacob Viner was a Canadian economist and is considered with Frank Knight and Henry Simons one of the "inspiring" mentors of the early Chicago School of Economics in the 1930s: he was one of the leading figures of the Chicago faculty.- Biography :Viner was born in 1892 in Montreal, Quebec to...
at Yale. In 1945, he took a position as instructor in social sciences and then in 1946 as Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago.
In 1947-48, he held an appointment as Associate Professor of Economics at the Carnegie Institute of Technology
Carnegie Institute of Technology
The Carnegie Institute of Technology , is the name for Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering. It was first called the Carnegie Technical Schools, or Carnegie Tech, when it was founded in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie who intended to build a “first class technical school” in Pittsburgh,...
. While there he taught a course in International Economics in which John Nash was a student. Nash indicates that it was the only course in economics he took before he began graduate study in mathematics at Princeton where he wrote his pathbreaking dissertation at Princeton on game theory and bargaining. Nash credits Hoselitz with influencing his thinking on bargaining with the example of countries negotiating and bargaining on tariffs.
Hoselitz went back to the University of Chicago in 1948.
In 1951 he helped found the university's Research Center in Economic Development and Cultural Change and founded the center's journal Economic Development and Cultural Change
Economic Development and Cultural Change
Economic Development and Cultural Change is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press. It covers all aspects of the economics of developing countries, including education reform, immigration, debt bondage, ethnicity, land redistribution, and economic development...
.
In 1953 he was promoted to Professor of Economics and the Social Sciences. Hoselitz served on and chaired a variety of interdisciplinary university committees. From 1952 to 1962 he took a variety of roles in international missions and conferences on development, and advised El Salvador, India, the U.S. Senate, and UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
. Hoselitz retired in 1978, becoming professor emeritus. He continued to edit Economic Development and Cultural Change until 1985 and died in 1995.
Works
Hoselitz addressed topics in economic policy and intellectual history including the economics of war and military occupation, urbanization, stage theories of economic growth, and the entrepreneur. With James Dingwall, Hoselitz translated and edited the first English edition of Carl MengerCarl Menger
Carl Menger was the founder of the Austrian School of economics, famous for contributing to the development of the theory of marginal utility, which contested the cost-of-production theories of value, developed by the classical economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo.- Biography :Menger...
’s Principles of Economics (1950), an important text in Austrian economics.
In the early 1950s, Hoselitz's work began to focus on the contrasts in social organization between economically advanced and economically backward countries. He wanted to develop a social science framework for examining the determinants of economic growth. The framework he developed drew heavily on the sociologist Talcott Parsons
Talcott Parsons
Talcott Parsons was an American sociologist who served on the faculty of Harvard University from 1927 to 1973....
's theory of social structure, especially what Parsons called “pattern variables of role-definition”.
Hoselitz made several distinctions between developed and underdeveloped countries based on these pattern variables: a) developed countries tend to be achievement-oriented, based on objective measures such as educational attainment, while developing countries have used ascribed status factors such as kinship and religion for assigning status and rewards; b) developed countries tend to use universalistic standards, for example in use of the rule of law, whereas developing countries tend more to act more on particularistic, personalized relationships such as caste systems or kinship networks; c) developed economies are characterized by extensive division of labor while developing economies tend to have a less-specialized workforce.
In linking together the two topics of economic development and cultural change, the founders and staff of the Center took the view that cooperative, interdisciplinary research would be required to address the relevant issues.
To facilitate “exploratory discussion of the problems of economic and cultural change”, the Center sponsored publication of the journal Economic Development and Cultural Change. Its first issue appeared in March, 1952. Initially established as essentially a newsletter for the Center for Research on Economic Development and Cultural Change, it went on under Hoselitz’s 33-year editorship to become one of the leading journals in the field of economic development. The journal focused on developing countries in the midst of on-going economic concerns with postwar reconstruction and emerging Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
tensions. It was also distinctive among development journals in emphasizing application of social science and interdisciplinary perspectives rather than simple advocacy or ad hoc generalizations.
Hoselitz can be seen as a maverick and intellectual outsider to the Chicago Economics department, home of the "Chicago School
Chicago school
Chicago school may refer to:* Chicago school * Chicago school * Chicago school * Chicago school * Chicago school * Chicago School of Professional Psychology...
" of thought. His employment of Parson’s pattern variables and his focus on cultural change contrasted to the Chicago department's emphasis on universal maximizing behavior. Hoselitz's writings acknowledge the likely possibility that top-down planners will be required to direct the course of economic development for under-developed economies, in contrast to the Chicago department's usual preference for laissez faire policies.
Hoselitz worked effectively with “mainstream” members of the Economics department. D. Gale Johnson was one of the founding participants in the Center for Research on Economic Development and Cultural Change, and Johnson succeeded Hoselitz as editor of Economic Development and Cultural Change.
Publications
- Bert Hoselitz, (1944) (with Henry S. Bloch), The Economics of Military Occupation, 1st edition, Foundation Press. 2d enlarged edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Bert Hoselitz (1945) “Professor Hayek on German Socialism,” American Economic Review 35:5 (Dec. 1945): 929-34.
- Carl Menger, Principles of Economics, Translation by James Dingwall and Bert Hoselitz (1950). Glencoe, IL: Free Press; 2nd edition, NYU Press.
- Bert Hoselitz, (1952), “Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth,” American Journal of Economics and Sociology 12, no.1 (October): 97-110.
- Bert Hoselitz, (1952) “Non-economic Barriers to Economic Development” Economic Development and Cultural Change 1:1 (March 1952): 8-21.
- Bert F. Hoselitz, editor, (1952), The Progress of Underdeveloped Areas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Bert Hoselitz, (1953) “The Scope and History of Theories of Economic Growth” Revista de Economia Politica, Vol.5, No.1 (May, 1953): 9-28.
- Bert Hoselitz, (1953), “Social Structure and Economic Growth,” Economia Internazionale, 6:3 (Aug. 1953): 52-77.
- Bert Hoselitz (1953) “The Role of Cities in the Economic Growth of Underdeveloped countries,” Journal of Political Economy Vol. 61, No.3 (June, 1953): 195-208.
- Bert Hoselitz (1955) “Generative and Parasitic Cities” Economic Development and Cultural Change 3:3 (April, 1955): 278-94.
- Bert Hoselitz (1956) “Entrepreneurship and Capital Formation in France and Britain since 1700,” in Capital Formation and Economic Growth, pp. 291–338. Princeton, N.J.: National Bureau for Econoimc Research.
- Bert Hoselitz (1957) “Urbanization and Economic Growth in Asia”. Economic Development and Cultural Change 6:1 (October, 1957): 42-54.
- Bert F. Hoselitz, Sociological Aspects of Economic Growth, Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1960. Includes most of Hoselitz's major papers since 1952, listed above.
- Bert F. Hoselitz, (1960) “Theories of Stages of Economic Growth,” in Bert F. Hoselitz ed., Theories of Economic Growth. New York: The Free Press.
- Bert F. Hoselitz, (1961) “Tradition and Economic Growth” in Ralph Braibanti and Joseph J. Spengler eds. Tradition, Values, and Socio-Economic Development. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. London: Cambridge University Press. pp. 83–113.
- Bert F. Hoselitz (1963) “Main Concepts in the Analysis of the Social Implications of Technical Change” in Bert F. Hoselitz and Wilbert E. Moore eds. Industrialization and Society. UNESCO-Mouton. pp. 11–31.