Vernon Ruttan

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Vernon Wesley Ruttan ( August 16, 1924 - August 18, 2008 ) was an American economist . In particular, he was a respected and influential development and agricultural economist and published over 200 books, scientific articles, and reports.

Life

Ruttan grew up on a farm in Alden ( Michigan on). He attended Michigan State University (1942-1943) and received a bachelor's degree from Yale University (1948). A Masters (1950) and a Ph.D. (1952) he received from the University of Chicago . After a few years with the Tennessee Valley Authority , he became a professor at Purdue University in 1955 . From 1965 until the end of his life he taught at the University of Minnesota .

From 1961 to 1963 Ruttan was a member of the US Government's Council of Economic Advisers . Between 1963 and 1965 he worked as an agricultural economist at IRRI in the Philippines , and from 1973 to 1978 as President of the Agricultural Development Council . He worked as a consultant for USAID (1968–1973 and 1980–1986), CGIAR (1973–1978) and IFPRI (1980–1986), among others .

job

Ruttan dealt primarily with the emergence and technological progress in agriculture and its importance for the economic growth of developing countries .

His best known scientific contribution, together with the Japanese economist Yujiro Hayami , was the transfer of the theory of induced innovation to agricultural technologies. The relative scarcity of land in Japan led to the development and rapid diffusion of high-yielding varieties . In the United States, on the other hand, labor was the relatively scarce factor, which is why labor-saving machinery caught on more quickly.

Awards

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Ruttan, Vernon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ruttan, Vernon Wesley
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American economist
DATE OF BIRTH August 16, 1924
DATE OF DEATH August 18, 2008