Harry Gordon Johnson

He was born on 26 May 1923 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the elder son of two children of Henry Herbert Johnson, newspaperman and later secretary of the Liberal Party of Ontario, and his wife, Frances Lily Muat, lecturer in child psychology at the Institute of Child Study of the University of Toronto.

Johnson was educated at the University of Toronto schools and then obtained scholarships to the University of Toronto, where he studied law and economics. According to W. Max Corden in the Oxford Dictionary of Biography, it was at this time that he "developed an interest in the history of thought and was much influenced by Harold Innis's lectures and ideas on Canadian and generalized economic history."[4] He graduated in 1943 and subsequently became, for one year, acting professor and sole member of the economics staff at St Francis Xavier University, in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. "In 1944", explains Corden, "Johnson volunteered for active service in the Canadian armed forces and, after training, was sent to England in 1945, eventually doing clerical work in Canada House."[4] This was then followed by further study at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he obtained a first-class BA degree in economics under the tutelage of the Marxist economist Maurice Dobb; a return to the University of Toronto, where he earned his MA degree; and then finally doctoral research at Harvard University, where he completed the course work requirements in three terms.[4][5][6] It was while at Harvard that he became a follower of the ideas of Joseph Schumpeter.

In 1948 he married Elizabeth Scott, daughter of Harold Victor Serson, civil engineer. She later became one of the editors of the collected writings of Keynes. They had one son and one daughter.

He held permanent teaching positions throughout Europe and Canada, as well as visiting positions at universities worldwide. Notable were his time with Chicago from 1959 to 1977, also during 1966–74 he worked at the London School of Economics. He also held a visiting professorship at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario and he briefly was professor at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva until his death.

As Johnson was universally known, was an inveterate conference-goer. In addition he visited innumerable universities, especially in Canada and in Asia. He "circled the globe like a planet" (Scott 80). This travelling style began in the fifties when he was teaching refresher courses for economists in Karachi and Singapore. His travelling and ubiquitousness became legendary.

Physically, he was a large man, overweight or at least stout, with piercing dark brown eyes. But he was far from sluggish, and gave an impression of intense and disciplined intellectual and physical energy. He was often loudly and informally dressed. His energy was kept under control by his continuous carving of wooden statuettes, of which he made thousands in many different artistic styles. He carved at seminars and in his room, throughout the most concentrated discussions of intricate economic problems.

Economist Jagdish Bhagwati, writing about Johnson's productivity and accessibility, said, "Countless numbers of manuscripts would reach him, from aspiring students of international economics and somehow Harry found the energy and time to read them carefully and write back to the authors promptly. ... once ... when he was staying with us, my wife asked him what he had been doing in the early hours of the morning when we had been still asleep. 'I read two manuscripts, one indifferent and the other bad; what is worse, I could have written one good paper in that time.' "[1]

He was a strong drinker and his reputation at London School of Economics and Political Science was that he travelled weekly between London and Chicago, and he would enter each flight with a bottle of Southern Comfort and would leave it with a fully written paper! According to Moggeridge he was often deeply intoxicated whilst attending seminars and workshops. Despite his prolific writing, he was criticized for essentially rewriting the same articles over and over. George Stigler was asked about Johnson's 500 published papers versus his 100. Stigler replied, "Yes, but mine were all different."

Harry Johnson died of a stroke in Geneva on 9 May 1977; he was survived by his wife. The enormous admiration and affection for Johnson was reflected in the numerous obituaries by members of the economics profession that appeared soon afterwards. "For the economics profession throughout the world, the third quarter of this century was an Age of Johnson" (Tobin 443). "He bestrode our discipline like a Colossus", "He was an institution" (ibid.). "Canada lost one of its greatest sons". He was "larger than life’ (the most common remark). "The one and only Harry" (The Economist, 14 May 1977, 121).

Johnson made many contributions to the development of Hecksher-Ohlin theory and until the 1970s according to Moggeridge, was the second most quoted trade theorist after Paul Samuelson. Johnson also helped to found the monetary approach to the balance of payments and wrote many high quality surveys of monetary economics that helped to clarify the issues in question. Despite being perhaps the most prolific economist of the modern era, Johnson's star has waned as is evidenced by the significant fall (discussed in Moggeridge's biography) in citations to his work in the past decade.

The Canadian Economics Association presents a Harry Johnson Prize every year for the best article to appear in the Canadian Journal of Economics in the preceding year.

He retained a lifelong interest in Canadian politics and was heavily critical of nationalist and interventionist policies that prevailed at his time.

In his policy-oriented writings, he clearly showed his beliefs in personal freedom and markets.