Miguel Sidrauski

Miguel Sidrauski (October 12, 1939 – September 1, 1968) was an Argentine economist who made important contributions to the theory of economic growth by developing a modified version of the Ramsey–Cass–Koopmans model to describe the effects of money on long-run growth. He also published an article on exchange rate determination. Sidrauski taught economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Miguel Sidrauski
Born	October 12, 1939 Buenos Aires, Argentina
Died	September 1, 1968 (aged 28)
Nationality	Argentine
Institution	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Field	Monetary economics
Alma mater	University of Chicago
Doctoral advisor	Hirofumi Uzawa Milton Friedman
Influences	Arnold Harberger

Sidrauski was born and educated in Buenos Aires. He entered graduate studies at the University of Chicago in 1963 and completed his PhD in 1966 under the supervision of Hirofumi Uzawa and Milton Friedman. After completing his PhD, he was appointed as an assistant professor at MIT. Sidrauski, who was Jewish, was described by his colleague Duncan K. Foley as “a committed Zionist.”[1] He died of cancer at the age of 28, and was surrounded by his wife and two-month-old daughter.[2]

Sidrauski is best known for his 1967 article, "Rational Choice and Patterns of Growth in a Monetary Economy," which was based on his PhD dissertation. The article analyses a model of a representative household that intertemporally maximises utility, which in turn depends on both the consumption of goods and the holding of real balances of money.[3] The model implies that in steady state, capital intensity is invariant to the rate of monetary expansion or contraction, a result that is described as superneutrality of money.[2][4]

Selected publications

• Foley, Duncan K.; Sidrauski, Miguel (1970). "Portfolio Choice, Investment, and Growth". American Economic Review. 60 (1): 44–63. JSTOR 1807854.
• Shell, K.; Sidrauski, M.; Stiglitz, J. E. (1969). "Capital Gains, Income, and Saving". Review of Economic Studies. 36 (1): 15–26. doi:10.2307/2296339. hdl:1721.1/63391. JSTOR 2296339.
• Sidrauski, Miguel (1967). "Inflation and Economic Growth". Journal of Political Economy. 75 (6): 796–810. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.330.9556. doi:10.1086/259360. JSTOR 1829572.
• Sidrauski, Miguel (1967). "Rational Choice and Patterns of Growth in a Monetary Economy". American Economic Review. 57 (2): 534–544.

References

1. Colander, David C.; Holt, Richard P. F.; Rosser, J. Barkley (2004). The Changing Face of Economics: Conversations with Cutting Edge Economists. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. p. 190. ISBN 0-472-09877-2.
2. Fischer, Stanley (1988). "Sidrauski, Miguel". In Eatwell, John; Milgate, Murray; Newman, Peter (eds.). The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics. 4. Palgrave. pp. 329–330. ISBN 0-333-37235-2.
3. Blanchard, Olivier Jean; Fischer, Stanley (1989). "Money in the Utility Function". Lectures on Macroeconomics. Cambridge: MIT Press. pp. 188–193. ISBN 0-262-02283-4.
4. Serletis, Apostolos (2007). The Demand for Money: Theoretical and Empirical Approaches (Second ed.). New York: Springer. pp. 68–70. ISBN 978-0-387-71726-5.

Further reading

• Overtveldt, Johan van (2007). "The Monetary Side of Chicago: Quantity Country". The Chicago School. Chicago. pp. 155–196. ISBN 978-1-932841-14-5.