Ragnar Frisch and the Foundation of the Econometric Society and Econometrica

On the Founding of the Econometric Society

“…The venture could not have succeeded without exceptional efforts by a small handful of dedicated and gifted men. But even so, it might not have succeeded without continued efforts and dedication, luck and Alfred Cowles (Bjerkholt 2013(Bjerkholt , 2015b.…”

“…In his paper, Frisch demonstrated his conception of econometrics as the quantification of economics, theoretically and empirically. A number of papers have given accounts of the founding of the Econometric Society; for example: Charles Roos (1948), Carl Christ (1983, Olav Bjerkholt (1998), Francisco Louҫã (2007, and Bjerkholt and Duo Qin (2010). 1 The seminal idea of an international association and journal of econometrics is known from a letter exchange in 1926 between François Divisia and Frisch (Divisia 1953, pp.…”

Edwin B. Wilson and the Rise of Mathematical Economics in America, 1920-1940

“…As noted by Roos to Wilson in a letter dated October 21, 1932, "the Econometric Society was built on the foundation laid by Section K." 26 The Society was a fruit of Frisch's efforts (Bjerkholt 1998 Mitchell, Oct. 9, 1928 (PEBW, 13). In the same letter, Wilson insisted that Section K was not aimed at competing with specific associations but at complementing them.…”

Macroeconomics, History of From 1933 to Present

“…Econometrics for Frisch was scientific economics and involved the cooperation of economic theory, mathematics, and statistics (Bjerkholt, 1998;Louçã, 2007). Like many others at the time he was concerned especially with dynamics, accounts of the movements of economic quantities over time.…”