27 Facts About Theodore Schultz

Theodore William Schultz was an American agricultural economist and chairman of the University of Chicago Department of Economics.

Theodore William Schultz was born on April 30,1902, in a small town ten miles northwest of Badger, South Dakota, on a 560-acre farm.

Theodore Schultz eventually enrolled in the Agriculture College at South Dakota State, in a three-year program that met for four months a year during the winter.

Theodore Schultz received an honorary doctorate of science degree from the college in 1959.

Theodore Schultz taught at Iowa State College from 1930 to 1943.

Theodore Schultz left Iowa State in the wake of the "oleomargarine controversy", and he served as the chair of economics at the University of Chicago from 1946 to 1961.

Theodore Schultz became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1958, the American Philosophical Society in 1962, and the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1974.

Theodore Schultz became president of the American Economic Association in 1960.

Theodore Schultz retired in 1970 though he remained active at the University of Chicago into his 90s until a fractured hip left him bedridden.

Shortly after his move to Chicago, Schultz recruited his former student, D Gale Johnson to the department.

In 1979, Theodore Schultz was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in human capital theory and economic development.

Theodore Schultz's conclusion was that the speed of recovery was due to a healthy and highly educated population; education makes people productive and good health care keeps the education investment around and able to produce.

Theodore Schultz coined this theory in his book titled Investment in Human Capital; however, he experienced negative feedback from other economists.

Theodore Schultz argues that his theory does not dismiss humanity but instead encourages individuals to invest in themselves.

Theodore Schultz inspired much work in international development in the 1980s, motivating investments in vocational and technical education by Bretton Woods system International Financial Institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Theodore Schultz theorized that if the US instead used its resources to help educate these rural producers and provide them with technology and innovations they would be more stable, productive and self sustaining in the long run.

Theodore Schultz argued that the farmers in these poor underdeveloped countries are making the most rational decision to not innovate or expand the agricultural sector because of high taxes and artificially low agriculture prices set by their governments.

Theodore Schultz stated that in these poor underdeveloped countries resources were already being perfectly allocated and agriculture was already efficient.

Theodore Schultz argued that the best change to make for these poor underdeveloped countries to make was to replace all old inputs with new more profitable inputs.

Theodore Schultz stated the best way to do this was with a market approach where farmers were left free to decide which changes in the factors of production would be made.

Theodore Schultz was awarded the Nobel Prize jointly with Sir William Arthur Lewis in 1979 for his work in development economics, focusing on the economics of agriculture.

Theodore Schultz analyzed the role of agriculture within the economy, and his work has had far reaching implications for industrialization policy, both in developing and developed nations.

Theodore Schultz promulgated the idea of educational capital, an offshoot of the concept of human capital, relating specifically to the investments made in education.

Theodore Schultz was born and raised on a farm near Frankfort, South Dakota, of German parents, who encouraged her to pursue schooling.

Theodore Schultz had the distinction of being the first South Dakota State University graduate and the second South Dakotan to win a Nobel Prize after Ernest Lawrence winner of the 1939 Nobel Prize for Physics.

Theodore Schultz died in Evanston, Illinois, on February 26,1998, at the age of 95.

Theodore Schultz is interred at Badger Cemetery in Badger, South Dakota.