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Eisner, Robert

YEARS IN THE DEPARTMENT:   

1951-1952

RESEARCH INTEREST:

Monetary and Fiscal Policy

BIOSKETCH:

Robert Eisner was born on January 17, 1922 in New York City. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1940 from the City College of New York and a master’s degree in sociology from Columbia University in 1941. In 1942, Eisner enlisted in the U.S. Army and was stationed in France during World War II. After the war, he attended Johns Hopkins University to earn a doctorate degree in economics. He earned his PhD in 1951.

Eisner began his teaching career at the University of Illinois after leaving Johns Hopkins. Newly appointed Dean Howard Bowen hired Eisner as part of Bowen’s plan to transform the Department of Economics into one of the premier schools of economics in the world. However, the Keynesian views of the newly appointed professors caused the existing faculty members to protest Bowen; this ultimately led to Bowen’s removal as dean, and caused many of his appointees to leave the University.

Professor Eisner only stayed at the University of Illinois for a single year due to the Bowen controversy. He moved to Northwestern University in 1952, where he went on to teach until his death on November 25th, 1998. By the end of his five-decade tenure at Northwestern, he was the William R. Kenan Emeritus Professor of Economics. Robert Eisner was 76 years old.

PHD:

Johns Hopkins University, 1951

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

  • Eisner, Robert. The Misunderstood Economy: What Counts and How to Count It. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business School Press, 1994. Print.
  • Eisner, Robert. How Real Is the Federal Deficit? New York: Free Press, 1986. Print.
  • Eisner, Robert, Robert H. Strotz, and George R. Post. Determinants of Business Investment. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall, 1963. Internet resource.
  • Eisner, Robert. The Total Incomes System of Accounts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989. Print.
  • Eisner, Robert. The Great Deficit Scares: The Federal Budget, Trade, and Social Security. New York: Century Foundation Press, 1997. Print.

OTHER LINKS/RESOURCES:

Robert Eisner Papers at the Northwestern University Archives

VITA:

Not available