University of California, Berkeley. Heller Committee for Research in Social Economics

The Heller Committe for Research in Social Economics was organized in 1923 by Professor Jessica Peixotto, chair of the Economics Department at the University of California, Berkeley. Peixotto obtained funding for the committee from Mrs. Clara Hellman Heller; her aim was to continue her research in the study of state wages and salaries among clerical workers, laborers, and executives. The members of the Committee were drawn from the UC Berkeley departments of economics and law; Peixotto served as its first chair. The funding provided the means for women faculty and graduate students in economics and home economics to undertake research in consumer economics. The committee sponsored the research and publication of many such studies, with particular emphasis on California, between 1923 and its demise in 1962; however, it was best known for its yearly "Heller Budget". These budgets, one of three types of reports published by the committee, were innovative in their attention to a broad range of household expenditures not generally measured by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, examining how families actually spent their money rather than how economists thought they spent it, and thus allowed Peixotto and her colleagues to analyze how families gauged their expenditures in relation to their actual and hoped-for standard of living.

From the description of Heller Committee for Research in Social Economics budgets, 1933-1950. (San Leandro Community Library). WorldCat record id: 745134355

Historical note

The Heller Committe for Research in Social Economics was organized in 1923 by Professor Jessica Peixotto, chair of the Economics Department at the University of California, Berkeley. Peixotto obtained funding for the committee from Mrs. Clara Hellman Heller; her aim was to continue her research in the study of state wages and salaries among clerical workers, laborers, and executives. The members of the Committee were drawn from the UC Berkeley departments of economics and law; Peixotto served as its first chair. The funding provided the means for women faculty and graduate students in economics and home economics to undertake research in consumer economics. The committee sponsored the research and publication of many such studies, with particular emphasis on California, between 1923 and its demise in 1962; however, it was best known for its yearly "Heller Budget". These budgets, one of three types of reports published by the committee, were innovative in their attention to a broad range of household expenditures not generally measured by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, examining how families actually spent their money rather than how economists thought they spent it, and thus allowed Peixotto and her colleagues to analyze how families gauged their expenditures in relation to their actual and hoped-for standard of living.

From the guide to the Heller Committee for Research in Social Economics budgets, 1933-1950, (USC Libraries Special Collections)