Robert R. Nathan

Robert R. Nathan (December 25, 1908– September 4, 2001) was an American economist who was heavily involved in US industrial mobilization during World War II.

Nathan grew up in Dayton, Ohio and attended the University of Pennsylvania, receiving a BA and MA. While in college, Nathan supported himself by factory work and selling silk stockings and telephone memo pads.

In 1933, Nathan joined US Commerce Department. During this time he worked with the influential economist Simon Kuznets, who he had also studied under at Wharton, in implementing the first national income measurements, including GNP.[1] When World War II started, Nathan frequently criticized the lack of industrial readiness in the United States if they entered the war.[2]

In 1942, he was appointed chair of the federal War Production Board's planning committee. That same year, Nathan was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.[3] Growing increasingly dissatisfied with the internal politics of the War Production Board, and feeling the need to serve his country, he volunteered for the Army in May 1943, though back injuries prevented him from serving in combat.[1] During a long period of hospitalization for those injuries, Nathan wrote a pamphlet entitled Mobilizing for Abundance in which he argued for Keynesian policies to be extended after the war to preserve peacetime economic stability.

After the war. Nathan started a consultancy firm Robert R. Nathan Associates (now Nathan Associates, Inc.). In the 1950s he worked for a period as chair of Americans for Democratic Action. In this role, Nathan was openly critical of President Dwight Eisenhower's conservative policies.[4][2]

Nathan died on September 4, 2001, in Bethesda, Maryland.[2]

References
  1. "Robert R. Nathan Oral History Interview | Harry S. Truman". www.trumanlibrary.gov. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  2. Schiesel, Seth. "Robert R. Nathan, 92, Dies; Set Factory Goals in War". NY Times. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
  3. View/Search Fellows of the ASA, accessed 2016-07-23.
  4. https://www.bea.gov/scb/pdf/2002/02%20February/0202Tribute.pdf Katz, Arnold J. Katz (2002) February A Tribute to Robert Nathan U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis


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