Hendrik S. Houthakker
Harvard University
December 31, 1924 - April 15, 2008
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Scientific Discipline: Economic Sciences Membership Type:
Member
(elected 1974)
Photo Credit: Courtesy Dutch National Archives. |
Hendrik S. Houthakker was a prominent Dutch-born American economist. Within the field of economics, Houthakker contributed significantly to the study of consumer behavior. In particular, he developed techniques that became widely used due to their ability to accurately predict consumption trends by using a series of available input factors. He gained recognition for his work with the concept of the strong axiom of revealed preference, in addition to research proving equivalence between the revealed preference and utility function approach, thus settling a sizeable dispute within the economic community. Houthakker also published on the topic of specialization and speciation, in which he strengthened the capability theory set forth by Frank Knight by examining both the internal and external costs of coordination within organizations.
Houthakker graduated from the University of Amsterdam in 1947 and earned his PhD from the same institution in 1949. Being of Jewish descent, Houthakker was persecuted by the Nazis between the ages of fifteen and twenty, at which point he returned to school and completed his first degree. Houthakker was a distinguished professor of economics at Harvard University; he also sat on the Council of Economic Advisers between 1969 and 1971, a period of time when inflation reduction was the national priority. In 2003 Pope John Paul II chose Houthakker to be a Knight Commander with Star in the Papal Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great.
