The Palgrave Companion to Harvard Economics

Dale W. Jorgenson was a central contributor to a wide range of economic and policy issues over a long and productive career. His research was characterised by a tight integration of economic theory, appropriate data that matches the theory, and sound econometrics. Jorgenson’s groundbreaking work on the theory and empirics of investment established the research path for the economics profession. He is a founder of modern growth accounting: Official statistics in many countries, including the US, implement Jorgenson’s methods. Relatedly, without Jorgenson’s unflagging efforts, consistent industry KLEMS datasets for many countries - which have been widely used in recent decades for growth accounting, econometrics, and other applications - would not exist. Jorgenson was also a pioneer in econometric modelling of producer and consumer behaviour and of econometrically estimated, intertemporal general equilibrium modelling for policy analysis.