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William Vickrey

April 12, 2024

William Spencer Vickrey (21 June 1914 – 11 October 1996) was a Canadian-American professor of economics and Nobel Laureate. Vickrey was awarded the 1996 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with James Mirrlees for their research into the economic theory of incentives under asymmetric information, becoming the only Nobel laureate born in British Columbia.

William Vickrey
Born(1914-06-21)21 June 1914
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Died11 October 1996(1996-10-11) (aged 82)
Harrison, New York, U.S.
NationalityCanadian
Academic career
InstitutionColumbia University
FieldSocial choice theory and mechanism design
School or
tradition		Georgist
Alma materYale University (BS)
Columbia University (MA, PhD)
Doctoral
advisor		Carl Shoup
Robert M. Haig
Doctoral
students		David Colander
Jacques Drèze
InfluencesHenry George
Harold Hotelling
John Maynard Keynes
ContributionsVickrey auction
Revenue equivalence theorem
Congestion pricing
Awards
Information at IDEAS / RePEc

The announcement of his Nobel Prize was made just three days prior to his death. Vickrey died while traveling to a conference of Georgist academics that he helped found and never missed once in 20 years.[1][2] His Columbia University economics department colleague C. Lowell Harriss accepted the posthumous prize on his behalf. There are only three other cases where a Nobel Prize has been presented posthumously: Erik Axel Karlfeldt (Literature 1931), Dag Hammarskjöld (Peace 1961) and Ralph Steinman (Physiology or Medicine 2011).[3]

Early years edit

Vickrey was born in Victoria, British Columbia, and attended high school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. After obtaining his B.S. in Mathematics at Yale University in 1935, he went on to complete his M.A. in 1937 and PhD in 1948 at Columbia University, where he remained for most of his career.

Career edit

Vickrey was the first to use the tools of game theory to explain the dynamics of auctions.[4] In his seminal paper, Vickrey derived several auction equilibria, and provided an early revenue-equivalence result. The revenue equivalence theorem remains the centrepiece of modern auction theory. The Vickrey auction is named after him.[4]

Vickrey worked on congestion pricing, the notion that roads and other services should be priced so that users see the costs that arise from the service being fully used when there is still demand.[5][6][7][8] Congestion pricing gives a signal to users to adjust their behavior or to investors to expand the service in order to remove the constraint. The theory was later partially put into action in London.

In public economics, Vickrey extended the Georgist marginal cost pricing approach of Harold Hotelling[9] and showed how public goods should be provided at marginal cost and capital investment outlays financed with land value tax. Vickrey wrote that replacing taxes on production and labor ("including property taxes on improvements") with fees for holding valuable land sites "would substantially improve the economic efficiency of the jurisdiction".[10] Vickrey further argued that land value tax had no adverse effects and that replacing existing taxes in this way would increase local productivity enough that land prices would rise instead of fall. He also made an ethical argument for Georgist value capture, noting that owners of valuable locations still take (exclude others from) local public goods, even if they choose not to use them, so without land value tax, land users have to pay twice for those public services (once in tax to government and once in rent to holders of land title).[11]

Vickrey's economic philosophy was influenced by John Maynard Keynes and Henry George.[12] He was sharply critical of the Chicago school of economics and was vocal in opposing the political focus on achieving balanced budgets and fighting inflation, especially in times of high unemployment. Working under General MacArthur, Vickrey helped accomplish radical land reform in Japan.[13]

Vickrey had many graduate students and protegés at Columbia University, including the economists Jacques Drèze, Harvey J. Levin,[14] and Lynn Turgeon.[15]

Personal life edit

Vickrey married Cecile Thompson in 1951. He was a Quaker and a member of Scarsdale Friends Meeting.[16] He died in Harrison, New York in 1996 from heart failure.

Selected works edit

Articles edit

  • Vickrey, William (1961). "Counterspeculation, Auctions, and Competitive Sealed Tenders". Journal of Finance. The paper originated auction theory, a subfield of game theory.
  • Vickrey, William (1963). "Pricing in Urban and Suburban Transport". American Economic Review. 53 (2): 452–465.
  • Vickrey, William (1969). "Congestion Theory and Transport Investment". American Economic Review. 59 (2): 251–260.
  • Vickrey, William (1977). "The City as a Firm". In Feldstein, Martin; Inman, Robert P (eds.). The Economics of Public Services. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 334–343.

Essays edit

  • "Fifteen Fatal Fallacies of Financial Fundamentalism: A Disquisition on Demand Side Economics". October 5, 1996.


Collected works edit

  • Arrow, Kenneth Joseph; Arnott, Richard J.; Atkinson, Anthony A.; Drèze, Jacques, eds. (1997). Public Economics: Selected Papers by William Vickrey. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-59763-0.

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Netzer, Dick (November 1996). "Remembering William Vickrey". Land Lines. 8 (6). Retrieved 2 September 2016.
  2. ^ Gaffney, Mason. "Warm Memories of Bill Vickrey". Land & Liberty. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  3. ^ "Nobel Prize facts". The Nobel Prize. Retrieved 18 September 2023. Section Posthumous Nobel Prizes
  4. ^ a b Vickrey, 1961
  5. ^ "Nobelist William S. Vickrey: Practical Economic Solutions to Urban Problems". Columbia University. 1996-10-08. Retrieved 2009-03-27.
  6. ^ Daniel Gross (2007-02-17). "What's the Toll? It Depends on the Time of Day". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-07-15.
  7. ^ Victoria Transport Policy Institute (1992). "Principles of Efficient Congestion Pricing – William Vickrey". Victoria Transport Policy Institute. Retrieved 2009-03-10. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  8. ^ Harford, Tim (13 November 2019). "Is surge pricing a fair way to manage demand?". BBC News.
  9. ^ Red-Light Taxes and Green-Light Taxes Mason Gaffney For the Conference, "Sharing Our Common Heritage: Resource Taxes and Green Dividends" Mansfield College, Oxford, 14 May 1998 http://www.wealthandwant.com/docs/Gaffney_RLT&GLT.html Quote: "Georgists need to introspect deeply over this case, and many like it, and master the theory and practice of marginal-cost pricing as developed so ably by closet Georgist economists like Harold Hotelling and William Vickrey."
  10. ^ Vickrey, William. "The Corporate Income Tax in the U.S. Tax System, 73 TAX NOTES 597, 603 (1996). Quote: "Removing almost all business taxes, including property taxes on improvements, excepting only taxes reflecting the marginal social cost of public services rendered to specific activities, and replacing them with taxes on site values, would substantially improve the economic efficiency of the jurisdiction."
  11. ^ Vickrey, William. Remarks at The Henry George School of New York, 1993. http://www.cooperative-individualism.org/land-question_t-z.htm
  12. ^ Turgeon, Lynn. Bastard Keynesianism : the evolution of economic thinking and policymaking since World War II. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 1997
  13. ^ Gaffney, Mason. The corruption of economics. London: Shepheard-Walwyn in association with Centre for Incentive Taxation, 2006 http://masongaffney.org/publications/K1Neo-classical_Stratagem.CV.pdf
  14. ^ "Harvey J. Levin".
  15. ^ "Lynn Turgeon". The New York Times. 16 March 1999.
  16. ^ "William Vickrey - Biographical".

Further reading edit

  • Arnott, Richard (October 1997). "William Vickrey; Contributions to Public Policy" (PDF). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  • Richard Arnott; Anthony B. Atkinson; Kenneth Arrow; Jacques H. Drèze, eds. (1994). Public Economics; Selected Papers by William Vickrey. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521454391.
  • Warsh, David (14 October 1996). "Laureate's untimely death a 'cosmic ripoff'". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 18 September 2023.

External links edit

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to William Vickrey.

April 12, 2024
william, vickrey, william, spencer, vickrey, june, 1914, october, 1996, canadian, american, professor, economics, nobel, laureate, vickrey, awarded, 1996, nobel, memorial, prize, economic, sciences, with, james, mirrlees, their, research, into, economic, theor. William Spencer Vickrey 21 June 1914 11 October 1996 was a Canadian American professor of economics and Nobel Laureate Vickrey was awarded the 1996 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with James Mirrlees for their research into the economic theory of incentives under asymmetric information becoming the only Nobel laureate born in British Columbia William VickreyBorn 1914 06 21 21 June 1914Victoria British Columbia CanadaDied11 October 1996 1996 10 11 aged 82 Harrison New York U S NationalityCanadianAcademic careerInstitutionColumbia UniversityFieldSocial choice theory and mechanism designSchool ortraditionGeorgistAlma materYale University BS Columbia University MA PhD DoctoraladvisorCarl ShoupRobert M HaigDoctoralstudentsDavid ColanderJacques DrezeInfluencesHenry GeorgeHarold HotellingJohn Maynard KeynesContributionsVickrey auctionRevenue equivalence theoremCongestion pricingAwardsNobel Memorial Prize in Economics 1996 Guggenheim Fellowship 1955 Information at IDEAS RePEcThe announcement of his Nobel Prize was made just three days prior to his death Vickrey died while traveling to a conference of Georgist academics that he helped found and never missed once in 20 years 1 2 His Columbia University economics department colleague C Lowell Harriss accepted the posthumous prize on his behalf There are only three other cases where a Nobel Prize has been presented posthumously Erik Axel Karlfeldt Literature 1931 Dag Hammarskjold Peace 1961 and Ralph Steinman Physiology or Medicine 2011 3 Contents 1 Early years 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 Selected works 4 1 Articles 4 2 Essays 4 3 Collected works 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External linksEarly years editVickrey was born in Victoria British Columbia and attended high school at Phillips Academy in Andover Massachusetts After obtaining his B S in Mathematics at Yale University in 1935 he went on to complete his M A in 1937 and PhD in 1948 at Columbia University where he remained for most of his career Career editVickrey was the first to use the tools of game theory to explain the dynamics of auctions 4 In his seminal paper Vickrey derived several auction equilibria and provided an early revenue equivalence result The revenue equivalence theorem remains the centrepiece of modern auction theory The Vickrey auction is named after him 4 Vickrey worked on congestion pricing the notion that roads and other services should be priced so that users see the costs that arise from the service being fully used when there is still demand 5 6 7 8 Congestion pricing gives a signal to users to adjust their behavior or to investors to expand the service in order to remove the constraint The theory was later partially put into action in London In public economics Vickrey extended the Georgist marginal cost pricing approach of Harold Hotelling 9 and showed how public goods should be provided at marginal cost and capital investment outlays financed with land value tax Vickrey wrote that replacing taxes on production and labor including property taxes on improvements with fees for holding valuable land sites would substantially improve the economic efficiency of the jurisdiction 10 Vickrey further argued that land value tax had no adverse effects and that replacing existing taxes in this way would increase local productivity enough that land prices would rise instead of fall He also made an ethical argument for Georgist value capture noting that owners of valuable locations still take exclude others from local public goods even if they choose not to use them so without land value tax land users have to pay twice for those public services once in tax to government and once in rent to holders of land title 11 Vickrey s economic philosophy was influenced by John Maynard Keynes and Henry George 12 He was sharply critical of the Chicago school of economics and was vocal in opposing the political focus on achieving balanced budgets and fighting inflation especially in times of high unemployment Working under General MacArthur Vickrey helped accomplish radical land reform in Japan 13 Vickrey had many graduate students and proteges at Columbia University including the economists Jacques Dreze Harvey J Levin 14 and Lynn Turgeon 15 Personal life editVickrey married Cecile Thompson in 1951 He was a Quaker and a member of Scarsdale Friends Meeting 16 He died in Harrison New York in 1996 from heart failure Selected works editArticles edit Vickrey William 1961 Counterspeculation Auctions and Competitive Sealed Tenders Journal of Finance The paper originated auction theory a subfield of game theory Vickrey William 1963 Pricing in Urban and Suburban Transport American Economic Review 53 2 452 465 Vickrey William 1969 Congestion Theory and Transport Investment American Economic Review 59 2 251 260 Vickrey William 1977 The City as a Firm In Feldstein Martin Inman Robert P eds The Economics of Public Services Palgrave Macmillan pp 334 343 Essays edit Fifteen Fatal Fallacies of Financial Fundamentalism A Disquisition on Demand Side Economics October 5 1996 Collected works edit Arrow Kenneth Joseph Arnott Richard J Atkinson Anthony A Dreze Jacques eds 1997 Public Economics Selected Papers by William Vickrey Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 59763 0 See also editElectricity market London congestion charge Road pricing Vickrey auctionReferences edit Netzer Dick November 1996 Remembering William Vickrey Land Lines 8 6 Retrieved 2 September 2016 Gaffney Mason Warm Memories of Bill Vickrey Land amp Liberty Retrieved 15 November 2016 Nobel Prize facts The Nobel Prize Retrieved 18 September 2023 Section Posthumous Nobel Prizes a b Vickrey 1961 Nobelist William S Vickrey Practical Economic Solutions to Urban Problems Columbia University 1996 10 08 Retrieved 2009 03 27 Daniel Gross 2007 02 17 What s the Toll It Depends on the Time of Day The New York Times Retrieved 2008 07 15 Victoria Transport Policy Institute 1992 Principles of Efficient Congestion Pricing William Vickrey Victoria Transport Policy Institute Retrieved 2009 03 10 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a author has generic name help Harford Tim 13 November 2019 Is surge pricing a fair way to manage demand BBC News Red Light Taxes and Green Light Taxes Mason Gaffney For the Conference Sharing Our Common Heritage Resource Taxes and Green Dividends Mansfield College Oxford 14 May 1998 http www wealthandwant com docs Gaffney RLT amp GLT html Quote Georgists need to introspect deeply over this case and many like it and master the theory and practice of marginal cost pricing as developed so ably by closet Georgist economists like Harold Hotelling and William Vickrey Vickrey William The Corporate Income Tax in the U S Tax System 73 TAX NOTES 597 603 1996 Quote Removing almost all business taxes including property taxes on improvements excepting only taxes reflecting the marginal social cost of public services rendered to specific activities and replacing them with taxes on site values would substantially improve the economic efficiency of the jurisdiction Vickrey William Remarks at The Henry George School of New York 1993 http www cooperative individualism org land question t z htm Turgeon Lynn Bastard Keynesianism the evolution of economic thinking and policymaking since World War II Westport Conn Praeger 1997 Gaffney Mason The corruption of economics London Shepheard Walwyn in association with Centre for Incentive Taxation 2006 http masongaffney org publications K1Neo classical Stratagem CV pdf Harvey J Levin Lynn Turgeon The New York Times 16 March 1999 William Vickrey Biographical Further reading editArnott Richard October 1997 William Vickrey Contributions to Public Policy PDF a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help Richard Arnott Anthony B Atkinson Kenneth Arrow Jacques H Dreze eds 1994 Public Economics Selected Papers by William Vickrey Cambridge University Press ISBN 9780521454391 Warsh David 14 October 1996 Laureate s untimely death a cosmic ripoff Chicago Tribune Retrieved 18 September 2023 External links edit nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to William Vickrey William Vickrey on Nobelprize org nbsp IDEAS RePEc William S Vickrey 1914 1996 The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics Library of Economics and Liberty 2nd ed Liberty Fund 2008 William Vickrey JSTOR Jacques H Dreze William S Vickrey Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences 1998 AwardsPreceded byRobert E Lucas Jr Laureate of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics1996 Served alongside James A Mirrlees Succeeded byRobert C MertonMyron S Scholes Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title William Vickrey amp oldid 1214576161, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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