17 Facts About Alvin Hansen

Alvin Harvey Hansen was an American economist who taught at the University of Minnesota and was later a chair professor of economics at Harvard University.

Alvin Hansen is best remembered today for introducing Keynesian economics in the United States in the 1930s and 40s.

Alvin Hansen was born in Viborg, South Dakota on August 23,1887, the son of Niels Alvin Hansen, a farmer, and Marie Bergitta Nielsen.

Alvin Hansen taught at Brown University while writing his doctoral dissertation, "Cycles of Prosperity and Depression".

Alvin Hansen was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 1932.

Alvin Hansen worked for the Economic and Financial Organization of the League of Nations.

Alvin Hansen was appointment as special economic adviser to Marriner Eccles at the Federal Reserve Board in 1940 and he was in charge until 1945.

Alvin Hansen died in Alexandria, Virginia on June 6 of 1975 at the age of 87 years.

Alvin Hansen presented evidence on several occasions before the US Congress to oppose the use of unemployment as the main means of fighting inflation.

Alvin Hansen advocated instead that inflation could be controlled by changes in interest- and tax-rates as well as controls on prices and wages.

Alvin Hansen used that analysis to argue for Keynesian deficit spending.

Alvin Hansen's 1938 book, Full Recovery or Stagnation, was based on Keynesian ideas and was an extended argument that there would be long-term employment stagnation without government demand-side intervention.

One of the most important contribution to the economic theory by Alvin Hansen are the economic cycles.

Alvin Hansen argued that the American economy during the Great Depression was not going through a particularly severe business cycle but through the exhaustion of a longer-term progressive dynamic.

Alvin Hansen trained and arguably influenced numerous students, many of whom later held government posts, and he served on numerous governmental committees dealing with economic issues.

Alvin Hansen argued that inflation could be managed by timely changes in tax rates and the money supply, and by effective wage and price controls.

Alvin Hansen advocated fiscal and other stimuli to ward off the stagnation that he thought was endemic to mature, industrialized economies.