Eli Ginzberg (1909–2002)
Economist and Policy Guru
Columbia College 1931, PhD 1935
Faculty 1935–79

Ginzberg earned the degrees of AB (1931), AM (1932) and Ph.D. (1935) from Columbia University. He joined the faculty of the Graduate School of Business in 1935, where he was A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Economics until 1979. He consistently spotted trends in many areas of the economy well before changes were recognized by most of those who were experts in the area. He was chair, National Commission on Manpower (title may have been a little different). Especially valuable were his insights rejecting consensus views regarding where change was leading in such diverse areas as manpower, health policy, welfare reform, and many others. His insights about what changes were possible and how to reach reforms were remarkable and sometimes seemed clairvoyant.

Submitted by Paul Thompson, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1977, who is solely responsible for the content.