Since economists put much store in the notion of people putting their (own or other people’s) money where their mouths are, Economics in the Rear-view Mirror provides from time to time some historical faculty salaries to shine a little light on where those professors of economics before us stood in the willingness-to-pay of their respective departments and university administrations. In this post we see how the brief visiting professorship of Friedrich Hayek and the tenured associate professorship of Milton Friedman fit into the 1946 salary structure at the Univerity of Chicago’s department of economics.
Note: For his half-quarter service Hayek was offered $2,000 (quoted in a January 23, 1945 note from the director of the U of Chicago Press to VP E. C. Colwell). I presume the $4,000 figure includes $2,000 compensation from (or on behalf of) Stanford University.
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Comparison: Selected 1945-46 Chicago Salaries
(and recommendations for 1946-47)
Jacob Viner. $10,000
Frank Knight. $9,000 ($10,000)
S.E. Leland. $9,000 ($9,500 Note: resigned to go to Northwestern)
T.W. Schultz. $9,000 ($9,000)
John U. Nef. $8,000 ($8,000)
Jacob Marschak. $8,000 ($8,500)
Paul H. Douglas. $7,000 ($8,000)
Oscar Lange. ($6,000) ($6,000) on leave 1 Oct 1945 to 30 June 1947
Henry Simons. $6,000 ($6,000)
L. W. Mints. $5,500 ($6,000)
Tjalling Koopmans $5250 ($6,740. Note: new salary effective 1 January 1946)
Source: “Budget and Appointment Recommendations 1946-47 (December 7, 1945)”
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Hayek’s Half-Quarter, Spring 1946
May 10, 1946
| Mr. Robert Redfield | Social Sciences |
| R. G. Gustavson | Central Administration |
On May 9, 1946 the Board of Trustees approved the following recommendations:
It is recommended that Friedrich A. Hayek be appointed Visiting Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics for the period April 8, 1946 to May 11, 1946. For this service and a similar period of service at Stanford University it is recommended that an honorarium of $4,000 be approved.
cc:
Mr. T. W. Schultz
Mr. L. A. Kimpton) Salary not mentioned
Mrs. K. Turabian) Salary not mentioned
Board—5/9/46:
It is recommended that Friedrich a. Hayek be appointed Visiting Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics for the period April 8, 1946 to May 11, 1946. For this service and a similar period of service at Stanford University it is recommended that an honorarium of $4,000 be approved.
Form sent to Comptroller—5/13/46
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Milton Friedman’s tenured associate professorship
Effective October, 1946
March 19, 1946
| Mr. Robert Redfield | Social Sciences |
| R. G. Gustavson | Vice President |
On March 28, 1946 the Committee on Instruction and Research approved the following recommendation:
It is recommended that Milton Friedman be appointed Associate Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics on indefinite tenure on a 4E Service basis at an annual salary of $6,000 effective October 1, 1946.
cc:
Mr. T. W. Schultz
Mr. L. A. Kimpton) Salary not mentioned
Mrs. K. Turabian) Salary not mentioned
I & R. 28 March 1946:
It is recommended that Milton Friedman be appointed Associate Professor in the Department of Economics on indefinite tenure on a 4E service basis at an annual salary of $6,000 effective October 1, 1946.
Source: University of Chicago Library. Department of Special Collections. Office of the President. Hutchins Administration Records. Box 284. Folder “Economics, 1943-1947”.
Image Source: National Portrait Gallery. Photographs Collection. NPG x187289. Friedrich August von Hayek by Walter Stoneman, half-plate glass negative, June 1945. The portrait has been cropped to fit the format of this webpage.
Creative Commons license. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).