William Baumol is een Amerikaans econoom, bekend van de "Wet van Baumol". Geboren op 26 februari 1922 te New York, Verenigde Staten.
De Wet van Baumol houdt het volgende in. Om diverse redenen vertonen de relatieve kosten van quartaire diensten een opwaartse tendens. De redenering omvat twee onderdelen.
Ten eerste is de toename van de arbeidsproductiviteit bij veel arbeidsintensieve diensten aanmerkelijk geringer dan bij het productieproces van agrarische en industri?le goederen die zich lenen voor mechanisering en dat van diensten die zich lenen voor automatisering. Het gaat dan bijvoorbeeld om leerkrachten, verplegend en verzorgend personeel, uitvoerende kunstenaars, maar ook om kappers en schoenmakers.
Ten tweede leidt de stijging van de arbeidsproductiviteit in de marktsector tot re?le loonsverhogingen. Toch moeten de lonen in de quartaire sector op langere termijn min of meer in de pas lopen met de lonen in andere bedrijfssectoren. Hier speelt niet alleen een vraagstuk van rechtvaardigheid, maar ook een probleem van personeelswerving: als de lonen in de quartaire sector te laag worden, zal het op den duur moeilijk worden om bekwaam personeel te werven en vast te houden. Door deze loonontwikkeling, die slechts ten dele wordt gecompenseerd door een stijging van de productiviteit, vertoont de relatieve kostprijs van quartaire diensten (maar ook die van vergelijkbare commerci?le diensten zoals de eerdergenoemde kappers en schoenmakers) een neiging om toe te nemen.
De consequentie van dit alles is dat de doorsnee burger allengs een steeds groter percentage van zijn inkomen op zal zien gaan aan dienstverlening, zoals (medische) zorg en onderwijs. Door de stijging van de welvaart blijft echter voldoende bestedingsruimte bestaan voor de aanschaf van materi?le zaken.
Curriculum Vitae
Born February 26, 1922, New York, NY
Married, two children
BSS College of the City of New York, 1942
Ph.D University of London, 1949
1942-1943 and 1946: Junior Economist, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture
1947-49: Assistant Lecturer, London School of Economics
1949-92: Professor of Economics, Princeton University
1992-current: Senior Research Economist and Professor of Economics, Emeritus, Princeton University
1971-current: Professor of Economics and Director, C.V. Starr Center for Applied Economics, New York University
AWARDS & HONORS:
1953 Fellow, Econometric Society
1957-58 Guggenheim Fellow
1960-70 Trustee, Rider College
1965 Honorary LL.D, Rider College (Trustee Emeritus)
1965-66 Ford Faculty Fellowship
1970 Honorary Fellow, London School of Economics
1971 Honorary Doctorate, Stockholm School of Economics
1973 Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Knox College
1973 Honorary Doctorate, University of Basel
1975 John R. Commons Award, Omicron Delta Epsilon
1975 Townsend Harris Medal, Alumni Association of the City College of New York
1982 Distinguished Fellow, American Economic Association
1984 Distinguished Member, Economic Association of Puerto Rico
1986 Winner, Assoc. of American Publishers Award for Best Book in Business, Management and Economics, Superfairness: Applications and Theory
1987 Recipient, Frank E. Seidman Distinguished Award in Political Economy
1988 Joseph Douglas Green 1895 Professor of Economics, Princeton University
1989 Winner, Assoc. of Am. Publishers Annual Awards for Excellence in Publishing, Honorable Mention in Social Sciences, Productivity and American Leadership: The Long View
1992 Recipient, First Senior Scholar in the Arts and Sciences Award, New York University
1996 Honorary Degree, University of Limburg, Maastricht, Holland
1996 Honorary Professorship, University of Belgrano, Buenos Aires, Argentina
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES:
Member, Committee to set up the Don Patinkin School of Economics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Chairman, Harvard University Visiting Committee, Dept. of Economics, 1995
Member, American Philosophical Society
Member, Advisory Board, Insurance Information Institute Press
Chairman, Overseers' Committee to Visit the Dept. of Economics, Harvard University
Member, Advisory Board, Journal of Economic Perspectives
Member, Editorial Board, Journal of Cultural Economics
Principal Investigator, Students at Risk Comm., Inst. for Education & Social Policy
Member, Advisory Committee, World Resources Institute (founding member)
Member, Editorial Advisory Board, Supreme Court Economic Review
Member, Board of Trustees, Joint Council on Economic Education
Member, Advisory Committee, Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Graduate School of Business Administration, New York University
Member, Board of Directors, Theater Development Fund
Member, National Science Foundation review panel for Science and Technology Research Centers
Member, Advisory Board, Fishman-Davidson Center for the Study of the Service Sector, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Member, National Academy of Sciences
Correspondent, Committee on Human Rights, National Academy of Sciences
Member, Committee on the National Institute for the Environment, National Academy of Sciences
Member, Board of Consultants, Economia, Revista Quadrimestral (Portugal)
Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Member, Executive Committee, V.P. (1966-67), American Economic Association
Past President, American Economic Association (1981), Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (1979), Eastern Economic Association (1978-79), Atlantic Economic Society (1985)
Past Chairman and Member, Economic Policy Council, State of New Jersey (1967-75)
Past Vice President, American Association of University Professors
Past Vice President, AAUP (1968-70) and Chairman, Committee on Economic Status of the Profession (1962-70)
Various times on Boards of Editors for American Economic Review, Kyklos, Journal of Economic Literature, Management Science, Economic Notes (Italy), Journal of Economic Education, Impresa e Concorrenza (Italy) THESIS: Theory and History of Economic and Social Institutions and Structures (USSR)
Director, Consultants in Industry Economics, Inc.
Frequent consultant to government and industry, in U.S. and many other countries.
BOOKS PUBLISHED:
Economic Dynamics (with R. Turvey), 1951, 1959, 1970
Welfare Economics and the Theory of the State, 1952, 1965.
Economic Processes and Policies (with L.V. Chandler), 1954
Business Behavior, Value and Growth, 1959, 1966
What Price Economic Growth?, (with Klaus Knorr), 1961
Economic Theory and Operations Analysis, 1961, 1965, 1972, 1976
The Stock Market and Economic Efficiency, 1965
Performing Arts: The Economic Dilemma (with W.G. Bowen), 1966
Precursors in Mathematical Economics: An Anthology (with S.M. Goldfeld), 1968
Portfolio Theory: The Selection of Asset Combinations, 1970
Economics of Academic Libraries (with M. Marcus), 1973
The Theory of Environmental Policy (with W.E. Oates), 1975, 1988
Selected Economic Writings of William J. Baumol, E.E. Bailey, ed., 1976
Economics, Environmental Policy, and the Quality of Life (with W.E. Oates and S.A. Batey Blackman), 1979
Economics: Principles and Policy (with A.S. Blinder), 1979, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1991 and 1994
Public and Private Enterprise in a Mixed Economy (editor), 1980.
Contestable Markets and the Theory of Industry Structure (with R.D. Willig and J.C. Panzar), 1982, 1987
Inflation and the Performing Arts (editor with H. Baumol), 1984
Productivity Growth and U.S. Competitiveness (editor with K. McLennan), 1985
Superfairness: Applications and Theory, 1986
Microtheory: Applications and Origins, 1986
The Information Economy and the Implications of Unbalanced Growth (with L. Osberg and E.N. Wolff), 1989
Productivity and American Leadership: The Long View (with S.A. Batey Blackman and E.N. Wolff), 1989
The Economics of Mutual Fund Markets: Competition vs. Regulation (with S.M. Goldfeld, L.A. Gordon and M.F. Koehn), 1990
Perfect Markets and Easy Virtue: Business Ethics and the Invisible Hand (with S.A. Batey Blackman), 1991
Entrepreneurship, Management and the Structure of Payoffs, 1993
Toward Competition in Local Telephony (with Gregory Sidak), 1994
Convergence of Productivity: Cross-National Studies and Historical Evidence (ed. with R.R. Nelson & E.N. Wolff), 1994
Transmission Pricing and Stranded Costs in the Electric Power Industry (with Gregory Sidak), 1995
Assessing Educational Practices: The Contribution of Economics (ed. with W.E. Becker), 1995
Microeconomics: Principles and Policy (ed. with A.S. Blinder), 1996
Plus some 400 articles published in professional journals.
