Klein, Lawrence R. (Lawrence Robert), 1920-2013

Lawrence Robert Klein (b. 1920) is an American economist born in Omaha, Nebraska. Much of his work involves building macroeconometric models for economic forecasting. He earned his undergraduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1942, and studied under economist Paul Samuelson at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), completing his Ph.D. in 1944. Klein then worked on macroeconometric models at the University of Chicago. In the following years, he worked at the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan, and the Institute of Statistics at the University of Oxford, before accepting a position at the University of Pennsylvania in 1958. In 1968, he became the Benjamin Franklin Professor of Economics and Finance at the Wharton School. In 1980, he won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

In the 1960s, Klein sold econometric forecasts to benefit his department at the University of Pennsylvania. Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates, Inc. grew from these efforts. In 1960, Klein visited and subsequently began working with economists in Japan. Klein also led research for the Social Science Research Council, and served as one of the principal investigators for Project LINK, which was created in 1968. Klein has traveled to Europe and Asia many times to give lectures, attend meetings, and work on collaborative projects. He and his wife, Sonia, have four children.

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