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.
Art Okun | |
|---|---|
| 7th Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers | |
| In office February 15, 1968 – January 20, 1969 | |
| President | Lyndon Johnson |
| Preceded by | Gardner Ackley |
| Succeeded by | Paul McCracken |
| Personal details | |
| Born | November 28, 1928 Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | March 23, 1980 (aged 51) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Education | Columbia University (BA, MA, PhD) |
| Academic career | |
| Institution | Yale University |
| Field | Macroeconomics |
| School or tradition | Neo-Keynesian economics |
| Doctoral advisor | Arthur F. Burns |
| Influences | John Maynard Keynes |
| Contributions | Okun'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. He died on March 23, 1980, of a heart attack.
Okun graduated from Columbia College in 1949 with the Albert Asher Green Memorial Prize for the highest GPA. He went on to obtain a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia in 1956 before teaching at Yale University.