Ruttan, Vernon W.

Vernon W. Ruttan, B.A. Yale University (1948), M.A. (1950), Ph.D. (1952) University of Chicago. Appointed as professor and head of department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Minnesota in 1965. Awarded Regents' Professor in 1986 and Professor Emeritus in 2000. Best known for his research in what causes change and the effects technological innovation have on economics and agricultural. Along with Japanese economist Yijiro Hayami, he developed the Ruttan-Hayami Model of Induced Innovation, which explains how interactions between established resources, technology, societal influences and institutions cause change.

Vernon W. Ruttan was born in Alden, Michigan on August 16, 1924. He studied at Yale University and the University of Chicago where he received his Ph.D. in economics in 1952. He was an economist at Purdue University (1955-1963) and an agricultural economist with the International Rice Institute in the Philippines (1963-1965). He was appointed professor and head of the department of agricultural economics at the University of Minnesota in 1965. In 1970, he became professor and director of the Economic Development Center. He then spent nearly a decade working for international research institutes and serving as president of the Agricultural Development Council. In 1978 he was appointed as a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, the Department of Economics, and the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. His research focuses on technological change, resource utilization, location and economic development and is best known for the Ruttan-Hayami Model of Induced Innovation, which explains how interactions between established resources, technology, societal influences and institutions cause change.

Among his numerous awards were being named Regents' Professor, the highest honor the University can bestow on a faculty member (1986), elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1990), fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association (1974), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1976), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1986). Vernon Ruttan retired from the University of Minnesota as Regents' Professor Emeritus in 2000.

From the guide to the Vernon W. Ruttan papers, 1947-2004, (University of Minnesota Libraries. University of Minnesota Archives [uarc])