Johannes de Villiers Graaff
Johannes de Villiers Graaff | |
---|---|
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Born | |
Died | 6 January 2015 Cape Town, South Africa | (aged 86)
Nationality | South African |
Academic career | |
Institutions | University of Cambridge, Nedbank |
Field | Welfare economics |
School or tradition | Welfare economics |
Alma mater | St John's College, Cambridge (PhD) University of Cape Town (BA) |
Influences | Abram Bergson |
Johannes de Villiers Graaff (also known as Jan de Van Graaff [citation needed] or Jannie Graaff) (19 February 1928 – 6 January 2015) was a neoclassical South African welfare economist.[1] Graaff is noted for his work on optimal savings rates,[2] contributions to the creation of the social welfare function[3] and for his 1957 magnum opus Theoretical Welfare Economics.[4][5]
Family and early life
Graaff was born in Muizenberg on 19 February 1928 into a wealthy Cape Town
In 1951 he married Lillian Clare Thomson, daughter of
Academia and economics
Graaff graduated from the University of Cape Town and then went on to complete his PhD in economics at St John's College, Cambridge in 1950, where he lectured economics until 1953. In 1957 he published Theoretical Welfare Economics, a revised version of his PhD thesis that pioneered the concept of welfare economics. The book had six re-prints in its first ten years and was regarded as a highly important work in the field of Welfare Economics.[6]
He left Cambridge due to his dislike of for the politics and infighting of academia and instead bought a farm in the
Graaff made a major contribution to the social welfare function by being the first to derive an equilibrium relationship between equity and
Post-academic career
Graaff played a large role in the formation of South Africa's tax code. He was a believer in the "promotion of equity through taxation and in tax as an instrument of redistribution." In the 1970s he sat on
Graaff was also the managing director of the
Mountaineering
Graaff was one of South Africa's most active and accomplished
Death
He died on 6 January 2015, aged 86, in Kenilworth, Cape Town[9] after falling and hitting his head on Long Street, Cape Town.[6]
Major works
- Fluctuations in Income Concentration, 1956, South African Journal of Economics.
- Rothbarth's `Virtual Pricing System' and the Slutsky Equation, 1947, Review of. Economic Studies, 15, 91–95
- A Note on the Relative Merit of Taxes and Subsidies, 1947, South African Journal of Economics.
- Towards an Austerity Theory of Value, 1948, South African Journal of Economics.
- On Optimum Tariff Structures, 1949, Review of. Economic Studies.
- Theoretical Welfare Economics, 1957, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
- Equity and Efficiency as Components of the General Welfare, 1977, South African Journal of Economics.
References
- ^ The Meaning of Social Efficiency by Louis Lefeber; Thomas Vietorisz – Review of Political Economy, 1465–3982, Volume 19, Issue 2, 2007, pp. 139–64
- ^ "Growth Theory". scribd.com. 19 February 2015. Archived from the original on 19 February 2015. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
- ^ "The Paretian System: IV - Social Welfare". newschool.edu. 2003. Archived from the original on 1 March 2010. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
- ^ "UCT honours memory of economist Jan Graaff". University of Cape Town. 15 January 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
- ^ a b c d e Joubert, Joubert; Black, Philip; Leibbrandt, Murray; Koch, Steven F (April 2015). "Johannes de Villiers Graaf" (PDF). Royal Economic Society (169): 24–25 – via l.
- ^ a b c d e f g Chris Barron (25 January 2015). "Obituary: Jannie Graaff, pioneer of modern welfare economics". Sunday Times. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
- ^ ThePeerage.com, Quoted from: (S37) Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 2, p, 1616. Hereinafter cited as Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition.
- ^ "Southern Africa's most iconic peaks". Cape Times. 21 July 2014. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
- ^ "JOHANNES DE VILLIERS GRAAFF". Independent Newspapers. 12 January 2015. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Wikiquote-logo.svg/34px-Wikiquote-logo.svg.png)
Media related to Johannes de Villiers Graaff at Wikimedia Commons
- The History of Economic Thought – Jan de Van Graaff homepage
- Theoretical Welfare Economics: A Comment, M. W. Reder, 5 MAY 2007