Irving Fisher

Author Code: AIFX

Educated at Yale University, Fisher took a BA degree in mathematics, but an avid interest in economics led him to receive the first Yale PhD in economics in 1892. In 1896, he published Appreciation and Interest, a paper that is still relevant today in the analysis of inflation. Fisher became a professor at Yale, but in 1898 he was diagnosed as having tuberculosis and spent the next three years in a sanatarium. This had a life-changing effect on Fisher, who began a health crusade for the remainder of his life. Fisher's background in mathematics allowed him to apply statistical procedures to economic theory and he was one of the first to use correlation analysis in economics. In 1906, he published The Nature of Capital and Income and followed in 1907 with The Rate of Interest, both of which became standard reading material for economists. In 1911, he published Purchasing Power of Money, which is undoubtedly his best-known work. In 1915, he published How to Live, which expounded his theories on health and fitness, and which was very popular. In spite of his knowledge of markets and economics, Fisher was completely caught out by the 1929 Stock Market crash and lost most of the fortune he had accumulated, much of which had come from his invention of the Rolodex. His other works include Elementary Principles of Economics (1911), The Making of Index Numbers (1922), The Theory of Interest (1930), Booms and Depressions and 100% Money (1935).