Hirofumi Uzawa

Hirofumi Uzawa
Native name	宇沢 弘文
Born	(1928-07-21)July 21, 1928 Yonago, Tottori, Japan
Died	Tokyo, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Institution	Stanford University University of California at Berkeley University of Chicago University of Tokyo Chuo University Doshisha University
Field	Mathematical economics
Alma mater	University of Tokyo (B.Math, 1951) Stanford University Tohoku University (Ph.D., 1962)
Influences	Shokichi Iyanaga Joichi Suetsuna Kenneth Arrow Hajime Kawakami
Influenced	George A. Akerlof Joseph Stiglitz David Cass Katsuhito Iwai Hiroshi Yoshikawa Nobuhiro Kiyotaki Hitoshi Matsushima
Contributions	Uzawa two-sector growth model Uzawa iteration Uzawa condition
Awards	Person of Cultural Merit (1983) Order of Culture (1997) Blue Planet Prize (2009)
Information at IDEAS / RePEc

Hirofumi Uzawa (宇沢 弘文, Uzawa Hirofumi, July 21, 1928 – September 18, 2014) was a Japanese economist.

Biography

Uzawa was born on July 21, 1928 in Yonago, Tottori to a farming family.

He attended the Tokyo First Middle School (currently the Hibiya High School ) and the First Higher School, Japan (now the University of Tokyo's College of Arts and Sciences faculty).

He graduated from the Mathematics Department of the University of Tokyo in 1951; he was a special research student from 1951 to 1953. At that time, he discovered the true nature of economics in the words of John Ruskin, “There is no wealth, but life.” which was quoted in the foreword to Tale of Poverty (貧乏物語, binbō monogatari) by Hajime Kawakami, and decided to study economics.

A paper on decentralized economic planning written by him caught the eye of Kenneth Arrow at the Stanford University, he went to study Economics at Stanford University in 1956 with Fulbright fellowship, and became a research assistant, then assistant professor in 1956, then assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley in 1960, and then associate professor at Stanford in 1961. Meanwhile, in 1962, he received a Ph.D. from Tohoku University. He afterwards was professor at the University of Chicago in 1964, and later assumed the position of professor of the Department of Economics at the University of Tokyo in 1969. He also taught at Niigata University, Chuo University, and United Nations University. Joseph E. Stiglitz and George A. Akerlof did research under Uzawa at the University of Chicago and David Cass studied under Uzawa at Stanford University.

Uzawa was a senior fellow at the social, commonness, and capital research center of Doshisha University. He held the position of the president of the Econometric Society from 1976 to 1977. He also held the position of Counsel for the Development Bank of Japan's Research Institute of Capital Formation (RICF) from 1968 until his passing.

Contributions

Uzawa initiated the field of mathematical economics in postwar days and formulated the growth theory of neoclassical economics. This is reflected in the Uzawa–Lucas model, the Uzawa iteration, the Uzawa condition, and Uzawa's Theorem, among others.

In his 1962 paper, Uzawa proved that the two of Walrasian equilibrium and Brouwer's fixed-point theorem are equivalent.

Bibliography

Working Papers

• Koopmans, Tjalling C.; Uzawa, Hirofumi (1982). "Constancy and Constant Differences of Price Elasticities of Demand," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 654, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.

External links

• Hirofumi Uzawa at the Mathematics Genealogy Project