William Vickrey

In 1951, William Vickrey married Cecil Thompson. They did not have any children and lived in Hastings-on-Hudson in New York. He was a Quaker by faith

In October 1996, as soon as his name as the recipient of that year’s Nobel Prize in economics was announced he suddenly became a celebrity. Apart from attending numerous telephone calls, he also had to attend number of press conferences, television and radio interviews, champagne parties, putting a strain on his health.

By 11 October 1996, he was back in his office, planning to have meetings with city transit officials. At 11 pm, he left his office to attend another conference. Around forty-five minutes later, he was found slumped behind the wheel of his car on the Hutchinson River Parkway, N.Y.

William Spencer Vickrey was born on June 21, 1914 in Victoria, the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia. His father, Charles Vernon Vickrey, was an American citizen while his mother, Ada Eliza nee Spencer Vickrey, was Canadian.

Three months after his birth, the family moved to USA, where his father became executive secretary of Near East Relief, a nonprofit organization devoted to helping orphans from the Armenian holocaust. Born eldest of his parents’ children, he also shared his breakfast table with Armenian orphans.

At the age of sixteen, he graduated from high school in Scarsdale and then enrolled at Phillips Academy Andover, a university-preparatory school for boarding and day students, graduating from there in 1931. Thereafter, he moved to the Yale University and completed his B.S. in mathematics in 1935.

In 1935, he enrolled at the Columbia University with economics, receiving his M.A. degree in 1937. To reach the university from his home, he used to take the train up to Harlem - 125th Street station and then roller-skate across town. Considered rather eccentric, he was equally admired by his friends.

In 1937, William Vickrey began his career as junior economist at the National Resources Planning Board in Washington, remaining there till 1938. Also in 1938, he invented the cumulative averaging method of assessing income tax. It was a noble innovation and he himself called it his ‘proudest achievement’.

In 1939, he joined Twentieth Century Fund as a research assistant, working on efficient pricing of public utilities, especially electric supply. His works during this period had far reaching consequences.

When the United Sates joined the Second World War, Vickrey, as a conscientious objector, was required to give alternative service. Assigned at the U.S. Treasury Department, he spent part of his tenure designing inheritance tax for Puerto Rico.

In 1946, he joined Columbia University as a lecturer in economics. Working under Carl Summer Shoup and Robert M. Haig, he submitted his doctoral thesis entitled, ‘Agenda for Progressive Taxation’, receiving his PhD in economics in 1947. Later, it turned out to be his most well-known work.

In 1948, he was appointed to the post of Assistant Professor of Economics at the Columbia University. Two years later in 1950, he was made an Associate Professor. Meanwhile in 1949, he was made a member of the Shoup Mission, set up to develop a comprehensive tax structure in post war Japan.

William Vickrey is best remembered for ‘Agenda for Progressive Taxation’, which he initially wrote as his doctoral thesis. Published in book form in 1972, it is now considered an economic classic. In this book, he advocated “optimal income tax” based on long-term earnings rather than on yearly income.

Another of Vickrey’s best known work is ‘Public Economics’. Published on 25 February 1994, the book is a collection of his papers scattered over various journals. The selected articles have been thoughtfully organized and the book offers an overview of his life’s work.