Dzhejms Tobin American economist, Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, 1981 Date of Birth: 05.03.1918 Country: USA

James Tobin Biography

James Tobin was an American economist and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences laureate in 1981. He was born on March 5, 1918, in Champaign, Illinois. His father was a journalist and a participant in World War I, while his mother worked as a social worker. Following his father's advice, James took the entrance exams for Harvard in 1935 and successfully obtained a national scholarship from the university despite lacking specialized preparation.

During his years as a student, Tobin first read John Maynard Keynes' "The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money." He graduated from Harvard with distinction in 1939, earned his master's degree in 1940, and briefly interrupted his doctoral studies in 1941 to work for the Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply and the War Production Board in Washington, D.C. When the United States entered World War II, Tobin joined the United States Navy and served as an officer on a destroyer. Towards the end of the war, he returned to Harvard and obtained his PhD in 1947.

In 1950, James Tobin joined Yale University, where he remained for the rest of his career. He served as the president of the Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics and held the Sterling Professorship at Yale from 1957. In addition to his teaching and research, Tobin actively participated in public life, addressing current economic issues in his writings, and being a sought-after political consultant.

He served as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers under President John F. Kennedy from 1961 to 1962, contributing to the development of Keynesian economic policies implemented by the Kennedy administration. In 1981, Tobin was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal and became a laureate of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Although formally retiring from Yale in 1988, Tobin continued to deliver lectures and write as an emeritus professor. He was married to Elizabeth Fay Ringo, a former student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from September 14, 1946. The couple had four children: Margaret Ringo, Louis Mike, Hugh Ringo, and Roger Gill. James Tobin passed away on March 11, 2002, in New Haven, Connecticut, at the age of 85. His wife, Elizabeth, passed away at the age of 90 in July 2009.

Tobin made innovative contributions to the study of investments, monetary and fiscal policy, and financial markets. He was widely known outside academic circles as an advocate for the introduction of the so-called "Tobin tax" – a tax on foreign currency transactions that would reduce speculation in international currency markets. However, many neoliberals believed that implementing the Tobin tax in any country would inevitably lead to its isolation from the global economy.