Arthur Melvin Okun

Arthur Melvin "Art" Okun (November 28, 1928 – March 23, 1980) was an American economist. He served as the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers between 1968 and 1969. Before serving on the C.E.A., he was a professor at Yale University and, afterwards, was a fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. In 1968 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.[1]

Art Okun
7th Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers
In office
February 15, 1968 – January 20, 1969
PresidentLyndon Johnson
Preceded byGardner Ackley
Succeeded byPaul McCracken
Personal details
Born(1928-11-28)November 28, 1928
Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedMarch 23, 1980(1980-03-23) (aged 51)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
EducationColumbia University (BA, MA, PhD)
Academic career
InstitutionYale University
FieldMacroeconomics
School or
tradition		Neo-Keynesian economics
Doctoral
advisor		Arthur F. Burns
InfluencesJohn Maynard Keynes
ContributionsOkun's law
Misery index

Okun is known in particular for promulgating Okun's law, an observed relationship that states that for every 1% increase in the unemployment rate, a country's GDP will be roughly an additional 2.5% lower than its potential GDP. He is also known as the creator of the misery index and the analogy of the deadweight loss of taxation with a leaky bucket.[2] He died on March 23, 1980, of a heart attack.[3]

Okun graduated from Columbia College in 1949 with the Albert Asher Green Memorial Prize for the highest GPA.[4] He went on to obtain a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia in 1956 before teaching at Yale University.[5]

Works
  • Equality and Efficiency: The Big Tradeoff (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1975)
  • Prices and Quantities: A Macroeconomic Analysis, see here (1981) ISBN 0-8157-6480-4

See also

References
  1. View/Search Fellows of the ASA Archived 2016-06-16 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 2016-08-20.
  2. Okun, Arthur M. (1975), Equality and Efficiency: The Big Tradeoff. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1975, pp. 91–92.
  3. Arthur Okun Dies, Economic Adviser to Johnson, accessed 2020-08-14.
  4. "COLUMBIA COLLEGE GIVES PRIZES TODAY; Arthur Okun to Get Award for Highest Scholarship Rating at Class Day Exercises". The New York Times. 1949-05-31. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  5. "Arthur M. Okun | American economist | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
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