Trygve Haavelmo
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Trygve Haavelmo
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1989
Born: 13 December 1911, Skedsmo, Norway
Died: 26 July 1999, Oslo, Norway
Affiliation at the time of the award: University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Prize motivation: “for his clarification of the probability theory foundations of econometrics and his analyses of simultaneous economic structures”
Prize share: 1/1
Life
Trygve Haavelmo was born in Skedsmo, Norway. He received a degree in economics from the University of Oslo in 1930. He received his Ph.D. in 1946 for his work The Probability Approach in Econometrics. He was a professor of economics and statistics at the University of Oslo for nearly thirty years. Haavelmo died in Oslo at the age of 88.
Work
Trygve Haavelmo was a pioneer in what became the field of economic forecasting. His statistical techniques made possible the development of econometric models that predict how a change in one aspect of the economy will affect others; that is, he demonstrated that statistical probability theory could be integrated into economic formulations. Haavelmo’s method contributed to the techniques of national economic forecasting.
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