Sir John Richard Hicks (1904–89) was an English economist. This winner of the 1972 Nobel Prize in Economics made pioneering contributions to general economic equilibrium theory (the theory that economic forces tend to balance one another rather than simply reflect cyclical trends) and welfare theory.
Born in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, Hicks was educated at Clifton College and Balliol College, Oxford. He taught at the London School of Economics (1926–35) and was a professor of political economy at Manchester (1938–46) and Oxford (1952–65.)
Hicks is celebrated for his statement of consumer demand theory in microeconomics. His IS-LM Model (1937) summarized a Keynesian view of macroeconomics. Based on theories of the behavior of consumers and entrepreneurs, Hicks’ model offered better empirical studies of the consequences of changes in externally given variables than earlier models in this field, and Hicks succeeded in formulating several theorems.
Hicks wrote a classic book on the conflict between business cycle theory and equilibrium theory, Value, and Capital (1939.) His other works include A Theory of Economic History (1969,) Causality in Economics (1979,) and A Market Theory of Money (1989.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by John Hicks
There is much of economic theory which is pursued for no better reason than its intellectual attraction; it is a good game. We have no reason to be ashamed of that, since the same would hold for many branches of mathematics.
—John Hicks
Topics: Economics
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