W. M. Gorman facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
W. M. Gorman
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| Born | 17 June 1923 Kesh, Northern Ireland
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| Died | 12 January 2003 (aged 79) Oxford, England
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| Institution | Stanford University Johns Hopkins University London School of Economics University of Oxford University of Birmingham |
| Alma mater | Trinity College Dublin |
| Doctoral advisor |
George Alexander Duncan |
| Doctoral students |
Edwin Mills Martin Feldstein Tim Besley Stephen Nickell Anthony Shorrocks James M. Poterba |
William Moore "Terence" Gorman (born June 17, 1923 – died January 12, 2003) was an important Irish economist and university professor. He was known for his deep thinking about how economies work. He studied how different goods and services relate to each other. He also created a special idea called the Gorman polar form.
Gorman taught at many famous universities. These included the University of Birmingham, Oxford, and the London School of Economics. In 1972, he was chosen to be the President of the Econometric Society. This is a big honor for an economist. His ideas were often very complex, but they helped shape how we understand economics today.
Contents
Early Life and Education
William Gorman was born in Kesh, a town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. This was on June 17, 1923. He spent his early years in Lusaka, which is now the capital of Zambia. His nanny there gave him the nickname "Terence." She said "William" was not a proper Irish name. So, he was known as Terence, or 'Terry,' for the rest of his life.
When Gorman was only four years old, his father passed away. He then moved back to his mother's family home in County Fermanagh. He grew up there.
He went to Mount Temple School and Foyle College. Later, in 1941, he started studying at Trinity College Dublin. He was chosen as a Scholar in mathematics in 1943. From 1943 to 1946, he paused his studies to serve in the Royal Navy. He was a sailor and then a petty officer.
After his time in the Navy, he returned to college. He earned degrees in economics in 1948 and mathematics in 1949. At Trinity, he met his future wife, Dorinda. His teachers, Professor George A. Duncan and Professor James Davidson, greatly influenced his thinking.
Becoming a Professor
Gorman started his teaching career at the University of Birmingham in England. He taught there from 1949 to 1962. Birmingham was a key place for new ideas in economics at that time. It was here that he fully developed his famous idea, the Gorman polar form. He wrote about it in an article in 1961.
After Birmingham, he became a top economics professor at Oxford in 1962. Then, in 1967, he moved to the London School of Economics. There, he started a new program for studying economics using lots of math. This was similar to how it was taught in America.
He also spent time in the United States. He was a visiting researcher at universities like Iowa, Johns Hopkins, North Carolina, and Stanford. Even after he retired, he continued to live in Oxford. He spent his summers in County Cork, Ireland.
How Gorman Studied Economics
Gorman believed that math and economics were ways of thinking. He learned this from his early schools, Foyle College and Trinity College Dublin. He also thought that social sciences, like history, were connected. He learned this at Birmingham.
Gorman was very good at using math in economics. He used his skills to explore how people's choices affect markets. He wanted to understand the links between what individuals prefer and how the economy behaves.
Awards and Special Honors
W. M. Gorman received many important awards and honors during his life. These show how much his work was valued.
- He was the President of the Econometric Society in 1972.
- He became a Fellow of the British Academy.
- He was a member of Academia Europaea.
- He was an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
- He was also an honorary foreign member of the American Economic Association.
- He received honorary doctorates (special degrees) from several universities. These included University College London, the University of Birmingham, the University of Southampton, and the National University of Ireland.
- In 1990, he became an honorary fellow of Trinity College, Dublin.
The Gorman Lectures
The Gorman Lectures in Economics are a special event held every year. They are named after W. M. Gorman. These lectures take place at the Department of Economics at University College London. The talks cover many different areas of economics.
Often, the ideas from these lectures are turned into a book. These books are published by Princeton University Press. The very first Gorman Lectures were given by Professor James Heckman in 2001. He later won a Nobel Prize. Other famous economists like Avinash Dixit and Robert M. Townsend have also given these lectures.
Resources
- On a class of preference fields, Metroeconomica, 13, August 1961, 53–56.
