Sir Richard Stone, knighted in 1978 and Nobel Laureate in Economics in 1984, is one of the pioneering architects of national income and social accounts, 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 behavior. His work on the “Growth Project” has also been instrumental in the development of appropriate econometric methodology for the construction and the analysis of large disaggregated macroeconometric models.

Throughout his long and productive career, stretching over more than half a century, Stone has been an inspiration to applied econometricians all over the world. His influence goes well beyond his written work. He has made a lasting impact on the large number of (now prominent) economists and statisticians who visited the Department of Applied Economics when he was its Director. He is a scientist, a scholar, and above all, a gentleman. He gives generously of himself and is always willing to help the cause of applied econometrics. He has been a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge since 1945 and has served as the President of the Econometric Society (in 1955) and the President of the Royal Economic Society (during 1978–1980). In the interview that follows, Richard Stone gives us a delightful account of his time as a student at Westminster School, his early introduction to economics at Cambridge University, and he shares with us his memories and thoughts on a long and productive career. The interview was conducted in Stones' magnificent private library in Cambridge, and I hope that readers enjoy reading the interview as much as I enjoyed recording it.

Further details of Richard Stone's biography and research activities can be found in:

Deaton, A. Stone, John Richard Nicholas. In J. Eatwell, M. Milgate and P. Newman (eds.), The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, Vol. 4, pp. 509–512. London: Macmillan, 1987.

Stone, J.R.N. An autobiographical sketch. In Les Prix Nobel 1984. Stockholm: Almquist and Wicksell International, 1985.

Professor Olav Reiersøl was born on 28 June 1908 in the countryside in Norway. He enrolled at Oslo University in 1928, where he studied chemistry, mathematics, physics, and botany. Choosing mathematics as his main subject, he received the cand. real. degree in 1935. As a graduate in mathematics and mathematical statistics he was employed as an assistant by Professor Ragnar Frisch.

Jan Tinbergen is one of the founding fathers of econometrics, publishing in the field from 1927 until the early 1950s. This was the frontier age of econometrics when the distinction between mathematical economics and econometrics, let alone between theoretical and applied econometrics, did not yet exist. Tinbergen's approach to economics has always been a practical one. This was highly appropriate for the new field of econometrics, and enabled him to make important contributions to conceptual and theoretical issues, but always in the context of a relevant economic problem. The development of the first macroeconometric models, the solution of the identification problem, and the understanding of dynamic models are perhaps his three most important legacies to econometrics. Tinbergen was awarded the first Nobel Memorial Prize in economics in 1969 (jointly with Ragnar Frisch) for his contributions to econometrics.

Tinbergen's desire to communicate his ideas to others is matched by a talent for clear and direct writing. This gives his econometric work great appeal and an apparent simplicity which should not be underestimated. This talent was also fruitfully applied to the development of pedagogical tools for teaching econometrics to his students.

Since the early 1950s Tinbergen's interests have moved on and he has made notable contributions to such diverse fields as the theory of economic policy, development planning, and income distribution. Tinbergen's political and pacifist views have always been an important element in his economics, and even, as this interview shows, his econometrics. His overriding aim has been to improve the welfare of the less fortunate in this world.

It is now 60 years since Tinbergen's first article in economics appeared, yet he shows no signs of retiring. We met him on May 27, 1986, in the study of his house in The Hague, where he has lived for most of his working life and which bears the hallmarks of continued study and writing. Most of the discussion during the afternoon concerned his econometric work published in the 1930s and 1940s. He gave us his views of those early developments—both what he thought then and how he sees them now. What follows is an edited transcript of the conversation. We hope that this interview will bring alive to the readers of the 1980s the issues and difficulties faced by econometricians in the 1930s, as well as Tinbergen's characteristic response to those problems. One of Tinbergen's attributes is a considerable modesty about his own achievements; the reader should bear this in mind when reading his remarks.

Econometrics as practiced by Arthur (Art) Goldberger demonstrates extraordinary sensitivity to issues of measurement and model specification, and unusual care and caution in interpretation of results, as well as a thorough and comprehensive mastery of econometric theory. His landmark 1964 book, Econometric Theory, set a new standard of rigor in econometrics, and at the same time treated the important problems posed by limited and qualitative dependent variables years before any other text. Art Goldberger's work ranges from early contributions to macro modeling through demand analysis, multivariate modeling with latent variables, and models for sample selectivity, to his highly regarded work on important social issues of heritability of IQ, effectiveness of public versus private schools, and measurement of salary discrimination. Goldberger's influential work, especially on modeling latent or unobservable variables, is widely known and applied in sociology and psychology as well as in economics. Art has been at Wisconsin for many years, and this association is an important reason for Wisconsin's continuing reputation as a leading center for quantitative social sciences.

The quality and influence of Art Goldberger's work has earned him many professional honors. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Statistical Association, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has twice been a Guggenheim Fellow. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Art gave the Woytinsky Lecture at the University of Michigan in 1985.

This interview took place on May 5 in Art Goldberger's office overlooking Lake Mendota. Art's remarks cover a wide range of topics, and I hope they are of interest to social scientists generally as well as to econometricians.

Much of the credit for the outpouring of research on nonlinear models in the 1970s—particularly limited dependent variable models—should go to Takeshi Amemiya. His classic 1973 Econometrica article on estimation of the parameters of the Tobit model [11] set a new standard for mathematical rigor in theoretical econometrics. During his career, which spans nearly four decades, Takeshi's research contributions to econometrics have touched on most of the central models for empirical economics, including linear and nonlinear simultaneous equations models, distributed lag models, heteroskedastic and random coefficient models, qualitative response models, censored and truncated regression and selection models, transformed regression models, choice-based sampling models, and duration models. His 1985 text, Advanced Econometrics [44], became the standard reference for second-year graduate microeconometrics courses at the leading graduate programs in economics.

Takeshi's research accomplishments have been accompanied by numerous professional honors. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Statistical Association, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was awarded Guggenheim and Humboldt Fellowships. Takeshi also has a distinguished record of professional service; he served briefly as a co-editor of Econometrica and has been a co-editor of the Journal of Econometrics since 1982.

This interview was conducted in Takeshi Amemiya's office at Stanford University in March 2004. In recent years his interests have turned to comparative study of Greek and Japanese culture and mythology—his scholarship includes a Japanese translation of an English research monograph on Aristotle's Ethics [58]—and the discussion starts with this topic before turning to his unusual education, career as an econometric theorist, and variety of outside interests. His remarks reveal both his careful attention to detail and the dry humor that his colleagues and former students (like me) savor.

Econometrics owes its essence and much of its ongoing vitality to the infusion of ideas from economic theory, the development of appropriate statistical methods, and the quantitative recording of economic phenomena. Each of these elements is an important source of energy for further scientific change. As professionals, we contribute to this evolution through research and teaching, most commonly in individual specialisms and all too frequently with little concern for holistic issues. Few economists indeed have the knowledge, the scientific expertise, and the professional experience to speak out with authority on the subject in its entirety and its scientific achievements. Even fewer command the respect of colleagues and authorities in neighboring disciplines, like mathematical statistics. For some time now, Edmond Malinvaud has stood out from the rest of our profession as a scholar who is uniquely qualified in this regard. His writings influence every field of economics. His advanced textbooks are cornerstones of graduate teaching programs. The scientific standards of his work set an example to the entire profession. And his recent evaluations of scientific accomplishments in quantitative economics have brought unity and direction to what was earlier just uncoordinated, individual research.