Thomas Nixon Carver | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 8 March 1961 | (aged 95)
Nationality | American |
Academic career | |
Institution | Oberlin College Harvard University |
School or tradition | Neoclassical economics |
Alma mater | Cornell University |
Doctoral advisor | Walter Francis Willcox |
Doctoral students | Albert B. Wolfe |
Thomas Nixon Carver (25 March 1865 – 8 March 1961) was an American economics professor.[1]
He grew up on a farm, the son of Quaker parents.[2] He received an undergraduate education at Iowa Wesleyan College and the University of Southern California. After studying under John Bates Clark and Richard T. Ely at Johns Hopkins University, he received a PhD degree at Cornell University under Walter Francis Willcox in 1894.[3]
He held a joint appointment in economics and sociology at Oberlin College until 1902, when he accepted a position as professor of political economy at Harvard University (1902–1935). For a time, there he taught the only course in sociology. He was the secretary-treasurer of the American Economic Association (1909–1913) and was elected its president in 1916.[4]
Carver's principal achievement in economic theory was to extend Clark's theory of marginalism to determination of interest from saving ('abstinence') and productivity of capital.[5][6] He made pioneering contributions to agricultural and rural economics and in rural sociology.[4][7] He wrote on such diverse topics as monetary economics,[8] macroeconomics,[9] the distribution of wealth,[10] the problem of evil,[11] uses of religion,[12] political science,[13] political economy,[14][15] social justice,[16] behavioral economics,[17] social evolution,[18] and the economics of national survival.[19]
Carver also co-wrote a number of journal articles, presided over conference presentations, and published in conference proceedings.[20]