Voting Station

Kenneth Arrow

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Economist

The Resume

    (August 23, 1921-February 21, 2017)
    Born in New York City, New York
    Known for his contributions to general equilibrium analysis and social choice theory
    Developed Arrow’s impossibility theorem: when voters have three or more options, no ranked voting system can convert individual ranked preferences into a community ranking while also maintaining criteria for fairness
    With Gerard Debreu, provided a rigorous proof for the existence of market clearing equilibrium (essentially, why the demand for goods and services tends to be in balance with the supply)
    Wrote ‘Social Choice and Individual Values’ (1951), ‘The Limits of Organization’ (1974), and ‘The Economics of Information’ (1984)
    Founding editor of the ‘Annual Review of Economics’ (2009)
    Co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics (1972)
    Received the National Medal of Science (2005)
    Uncle of Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers
    Brother-in-law of economist Paul Samuelson

Why he might be annoying:

    He originally planned to be a high school math teacher and went on to graduate school and economics only because there were no open positions.
    He said about his impossibility theorem, ‘Most systems are not going to work badly all of the time. All I proved is that all can work badly at times.’
    His theories about asymmetric information in the marketplace for health insurance served as the underpinning for much of Obamacare, particularly its least popular feature, the individual mandate requiring everyone to purchase insurance (or pay a penalty) whether or not they expected to need medical care.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was a weather officer with the United States Air Force during World War II.
    He was married to Selma Schweitzer for 68 years until her death.
    Five of his students would win the Nobel Prize in Economics themselves.
    He continued cycling to his office every day in his mid-80s.
    He said his opinion of capitalism was ‘like Churchill’s view of democracy: it’s the worst system, except for all the others.’

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying