Vernon Ruttan
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
- several awards from the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA)
- Admission to the AAEA (1974), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1976), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1986) and the National Academy of Sciences (1990)
- Humboldt Research Award (1984)
- Honorary doctorates from Rutgers University (1978), Kiel University (1986) and Purdue University (1991)
- Distinguished Service Award from USDA
Web links
- University of Minnesota website ( March 4, 2010 memento on Internet Archive )
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Ruttan, Vernon |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Ruttan, Vernon Wesley |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American economist |
DATE OF BIRTH | August 16, 1924 |
DATE OF DEATH | August 18, 2008 |