Agatha Chapman
Agatha Chapman | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 6, 1907 |
| Died | October 17, 1963 (aged 56) |
| Academic career | |
| Field | Economics |
| School or tradition | National accounts |
| Influences | Richard Stone Keynes Marx |
| Contributions | National accounts |
Agatha Chapman (6 May 1907 – 17 October 1963) was a British-born economist at the Canadian Bureau of National Statistics from 1942–47. She was the only female to attend the first United Nations Sub-Committee on National Income Statistics in 1945, which led to the United Nations System of National Accounts.[1]
Career
She so impressed economist Richard Stone with her grasp of national accounting that he insisted her name be added to the official report of the meeting[2] thus recording her as the only female contributor to attend the first U.N. Sub-committee on national income statistics in December 1945.[1] The work of the sub-committee in which she took part gave rise to the U.N.'s System of National Accounts.[1]
Controversy
Chapman was tried for "aiding Soviet spies" in the Gouzenko affair,[3] and was aquitted. The affair, with Gouzenko exposing Soviet spying in Canada, was often credited as a triggering event for the Cold War,[4] Although Chapman went free, she was ostracized from the Canadian Civil Service.[2]
She went on to spend three years at Cambridge University when it was the epicentre of postwar national accounting. Chapman wrote a study of British wages and salaries in the interwar period, which was published in 1953 by Cambridge University Press as Wages and Salaries in the United Kingdom, 1920-1938. She returned to Canada to form a research consultancy that applied national accounting to the needs of unions and workers.
Personal life
Back in Canada, she married an American who had left the U.S. due to McCarthyism.
Death
Chapman's income dwindled and, suffering from arthritis, she committed suicide on 17 October 1963, aged 56 in Montreal.[2]
Works
- Agatha L. Chapman, Wages and Salaries in the United Kingdom, 1920–1938. Cambridge University Press. 1953
References
- ^ a b c "Sub-committee on National Income Statistics, 1947. Measurement of National Income and the construction of social accounts" (PDF). United Nations. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
- ^ a b c "The trial and tribulations of Miss Agatha Chapman: statistics in a Cold War climate". The Free Library. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
- ^ Knight, Amy (2007). How the Cold War Began: The Igor Gouzenko Affair and the Hunt for Soviet Spies. Carroll & Graf. ISBN 978-0-7867-1938-9.
- ^ "Soviet Defector Believed Beginner of Cold War". Toledo Blade. 25 December 1984. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
External links
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