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Harvey Leibenstein (August 23, 1922 – April 24, 1994) was an American economist best known for his work on economic theory. He was one of the first to apply the principles of game theory to economic models and wrote widely acclaimed essays that explored the possible implications of his theories. Despite these contributions, Leibenstein is not as well known as some of his contemporaries.
Leibenstein was born in New York City in 1922 to a Jewish family. He began studying economics as a young adult, attending Columbia University where he earned his undergraduate degree in 1945, followed by a Master’s in 1947. He went on to pursue a PhD in economics at Harvard University, which he completed in 1951.
Leibenstein’s early work was focused on topics such as the economics of information and the dynamics of the economy. He applied the principles of game theory to areas of microeconomics, such as the economics of imperfect information. His significant contribution on this topic is known as the Leibenstein paradox, which states that an increase in imperfect information can lead to an increase in economic efficiency and welfare.
He also wrote widely on the topics of poverty, labor market regulation and industrial organization. He argued that the causes of poverty were due to lack of useful information, lack of well-defined incentives, and inadequate production capacity. He further posited that a market economy was well-equipped to solve these problems and argued in favor of supportive government policies to enable this.
Leibenstein maintained a focus on the problems of poverty. He applied mathematical economic models to the study of the distribution of income and the alleviation of poverty. In this work, he suggested that attainable growth could be achieved by reducing the number of people in poverty, with his concept of attainable growth being used as a measure of economic progress.
Leibenstein’s writings often revolve around the idea that markets should not be viewed simply as entities that allocate resources, but rather as organisms whose behavior should be determined by the individual decisions of their members. He argued that it is only through the multiplicity of individual decisions that an economy can be organized into an effective natural system.
Leibenstein published five books during his lifetime, and was presented with lifetime achievement awards from the American Economic Association in 1993 and the European Economic Association in 1994. He passed away in 1994 at the age of 71. His legacy as one of Americas most influential economic theorists lives on.
