Arrow, Kenneth Joseph (1921-2017), an American economist, shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in economics with Sir John Hicks of the United Kingdom. They received the award for their contributions to general equilibrium theory and to welfare economics. General equilibrium theory examines the relationship between the processes of production, distribution, and consumption in the total economy. Welfare economics is a branch of economics concerned with how an economic system might achieve the greatest possible welfare for its people.
Arrow is best known for his impossibility theorem, an idea that revolutionized welfare economics. The theorem proves mathematically that a perfect form of government can never be possible. Arrow also did pioneering research on the theory of business risks.
Arrow was born on Aug. 23, 1921, in New York City. He taught economics at Stanford University from 1949 to 1968 and at Harvard University from 1968 to 1979. Arrow returned to Stanford in 1979 and taught there until his retirement in 1991. His books include Essays in the Theory of Risk Bearing (1971) and The Limits of Organization (1974). Arrow died on Feb. 21, 2017.
