Alvin H. Hansen (1887–1975)

Alvin Hansen was the consummate teacher, his intellectual curiosity communicated to students and colleagues alike. He was open to new ideas but always sought practical policy oriented solutions that provided for and promoted equality of opportunity. From the early influences of the Wisconsin Institutionalists he established himself as a leading business cycle theorist and policy economist at the University of Minnesota, especially with his work at the Employment Stablization Research Institute which helped pave the way for the introduction of unemployment insurance in the US after the Great Depression. His concerns over the ability of the twentieth-century US economy to maintain growth and to continue to secure full employment led to his secular stagnation thesis of the late 1930s and an espousal of Keynesian theories and policies at Harvard and resulted him becoming known as the “American Keynes”. Hansen’s teaching at Harvard, most notably in the Fiscal Policy Seminar with John Williams, influenced generations of leading post-war US economists inside and outside of government.