Theodore William Schultz (1902–98) was an American agricultural economist. Identified for his assessment that agricultural development is a prerequisite for industrial development, his influential studies of the role of “human capital” in economic development won him the 1979 Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics (with Sir Arthur Lewis.)
Born in Arlington, South Dakota, and educated at South Dakota State College and the University of Wisconsin, Schultz held professorships at Iowa State College 1930–43 and the University of Chicago 1943–72.
Schultz’s groundbreaking work Transforming Traditional Agriculture (1964) disputed the established view that farmers in developing countries were irrational in their unwillingness to innovate. He reasoned that the farmers were making rational responses to high taxes and artificially low crop prices set by their governments. His work underscored the importance of the human factor (education, talent, energy, and will) in agriculture.
Among Schultz’s other publications were Agriculture in an Unstable Economy (1945,) The Economic Value of Education (1963,) Economic Growth and Agriculture (1968,) Investment in Human Capital (1971,) and Investing in People: The Economics of Population Quality (1981,) The Economics of Being Poor (1993,) and Origins of Increasing Returns (1993.)
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And for man to look upon himself as a capital good, even if it did not impair his freedom, may seem to debase him… by investing in themselves, people can enlarge the range of choice available to them. It is one way free men can enhance their welfare.
—Theodore Schultz
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