Erik Thorbecke
| Erik Thorbecke | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | February 17, 1929 |
| Nationality | American |
| Institution |
Iowa State University Cornell University |
| Field | Development Economics |
| Alma mater |
Erasmus University Rotterdam University of California, Berkeley |
Erik Thorbecke (born February 17, 1929) is a development economist. He is a co-originator of the widely used Foster-Greer-Thorbecke poverty measure and played a significant role in the development and popularization of Social Accounting Matrix. Currently, he is H. E. Babcock Professor of Economics, Emeritus, and Graduate School Professor at Cornell University.
Thorbecke was born into a prominent Dutch family. His great-grandfather Johan Rudolf Thorbecke virtually singlehandedly drafted the revision of the Constitution of the Netherlands and served as Prime Minister of the country on three occasions. His father Willem J. R. Thorbecke was a professor and served as an ambassador to China. His mother Madelaine Salisbury's great grandfather Fernando Wood was a Mayor of New York City. He married Charla J. Westerberg in 1954 and is the father of three sons.
Thorbecke spent his early years in Europe. He was a student (1948–51) at the Netherlands School of Economics (now part of Erasmus University Rotterdam) and got his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1957.
He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Ghent University in 1981.
After teaching at Iowa State University from 1957 to 1973, Thorbecke moved to Ithaca and spent the rest of his professional career at Cornell University. He also served as economic adviser to the National Planning Institute, Lima, Peru (1963–64); associate assistant administrator for program policy USAID, Washington (1966–68); member of the USAID's Research Advisory Committee (1976–81); senior economist at the World Employment Program at the International Labor Office, Geneva, (1972–73); Visiting Professor, Erasmus University Rotterdam (1980–81); Member of Committee on International Nutritional Programs NRC-NAS (1979–81); Director, Program on Comparative Economic Development, Cornell U. (1988–2001), Senior Research fellow, Institute for Policy Reform (1990–97). At Cornell, he was affiliated with the departments of economics (which he chaired in 1974–78), agricultural economics, and nutritional sciences.
...
Wikipedia