Sir Richard Stone – Father of National Income Accounting
Please note that we are not authorised to provide any investment advice. The content on this page is for information purposes only.
Sir John Richard Nicholas Stone, knighted in 1978 and Nobel Laureate in Economics in 1984, is one of the pioneering architects of national income accounting, and is one of the few economists of his generation to have faced the challenge of economics as a science by combining theory and measurement within a cohesive framework. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for his “fundamental contributions to the development of national accounts,” but he has made equally significant contributions to the empirical analysis of consumer behaviour.
Sir John Richard Nicholas Stone, knighted in 1978 and Nobel Laureate in Economics in 1984, is one of the pioneering architects of national income accounting, and is one of the few economists of his generation to have faced the challenge of economics as a science by combining theory and measurement within a cohesive framework. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for his “fundamental contributions to the development of national accounts,” but he has made equally significant contributions to the empirical analysis of consumer behaviour. His work on the “Growth Project” has also been instrumental in the development of appropriate econometric methodology for the construction and analysis of large disaggregated macroeconomic models.
Sir Richard Stone was born in London on 30th August 1913. As the son of the barrister, Stone majored in law before making the switch to economics in 1931, where he studied under Richard Kahn. As an undergraduate at Cambridge University, he joined the Political Economy Club at the request of fellow economist John Maynard Keynes. Stone obtained his degree in economics in the year 1935.
Upon receiving his degree, Stone gained employment with Lloyd’s as an underwriter. But his interests lay somewhere else. He, together with his Cambridge economist wife Winifred Mary Jenkins, spent their leisure time compiling estimates of industrial production for an autonomous and self-driven monthly publication “Trends”. On the basis of his earlier work, he was asked to join the Ministry of Economic Warfare at the outbreak of the war in September 1939.
In the following year, Stone was selected to assist James Meade in assessing Britain’s economic situation and preparing a report on the survey. With this in view, Stone joined the Central Economic Information Service of the Offices of the War Cabinet. Their collective effort produced the first account of Britain’s national income. The report and budget was first presented at Parliament in April 1941. However, Meade quickly ceased his contribution but Stone continued to work on the topic and eventually earned himself the title of “Father of the National Income Accounting.” The accounting system gradually received universal acceptance and acknowledgement from organizations like the OECD, and the United Nations was among the first to adopt the system.
Sir Richard Stone returned to Cambridge University after the war and was appointed the Director of the Department of Applied Economics. Stone was instrumental in making the institute the pilgrimage for economists, and it was his efforts that established the institute as the best in applied economics and attracted a number of top brand economists. Stone’s approach to education was a blend of research work and thorough study. Apart from the primary contribution towards national accounting, he also extended his work to other aspects of applied economics, particularly his work in consumer behavorial economics. He created the remarkable macroeconomic model of the British economy known as the Cambridge Growth Project and also constructed a system of socio-demographic accounts which he conceived along with the national accounts project in which the goods were replaced by human beings and the transaction of goods was replaced by the migration of human beings.
Sir Richard Stone has contributed a great deal to the field economics. He was endowed with the honor of Knighthood in 1978 and in 1984 received the Nobel Prize in Economics for his fundamental contribution to the development of national accounting systems.
Major Publications by Sir Richard Stone
Books by Sir Richard Stone
Disclosure: These links to books for sale at Amazon.com are affiliate links, meaning that if you buy it from Amazon, we will make a small commission. The price is the same for you.
