Metzler, Lloyd A. (Lloyd Appleton)

Economist, consultant for U.S. government agencies.

Economist, consultant to a number of U.S. government agencies.

Lloyd Appleton Metzler was born in Kansas in 1913. As an economist he became known for his research on international trade, tariffs, the business cycle, macro-monetary theory, mathematical economics, and instability. The "Metzler paradox" relating to tariff theory was named for him, and in mathematical economics the "Metzler matrix" also bears his name. Graduating from Harvard in 1942, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. He served as a consultant to several U.S. Government commissions and the Federal Reserve Board during World War II, and was a member of the Yale faculty from 1946-1947. He subsequently spent most of his career at the University of Chicago, where he was a Keynesian economist rather than following the Chicago School of thought. In 1973 Harvard University Press published Metzler's Collected Papers, which were chiefly written between 1941 and 1951. After 1952 a brain tumor presented major health problems and affected his scholarly output. Metzler was honored as a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association in 1968. He died in 1980.

Lloyd Appleton Metzler was born on April 3, 1913 in Lost Springs, Kansas. He attended the University of Kansas, where he studied economics under John Ise and earned a Bachelor's degree in 1935 and an MBA in 1938. Metzler then entered Harvard University. He served as an instructor and tutor at Harvard and completed a Ph.D. in economics in 1942. His dissertation, "Interregional Income Generation," earned him the Wells Prize. That same year, Metzler was the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship.

From Harvard, Metzler went on to Washington, D.C., where worked for the Office of Strategic Services and several economic policy and planning commissions between 1943 and 1946. Metzler joined the research staff of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in 1944. In 1946 he returned to academia when he accepted a teaching position at Yale University. He soon left Yale for the University of Chicago in 1947, where he remained for the rest of his career.

Dr. Metzler survived surgery for a brain tumor in 1952, and with the help of his wife Edith, managed to continue teaching and writing for the next twenty years. He served as Editor of the Journal of Political Economy from 1966 until his retirement in 1971. Metzler made numerous contributions to business cycle literature, macro-monetary theory, tariff theory, mathematical economics, and the field of international trade. The Metzler paradox, Laursen-Metzler effect, and Metzler matrix, all bear his name. He died on October 26, 1980.