George S. Tolley (1925–2021)

Glenn Blomquist, Richard Burkhauser and Donald Kenkel

Chapter 29 in The Palgrave Companion to Chicago Economics, 2022, pp 739-771 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract George Tolley’s career demonstrates the value of using Chicago-style applied microeconomic principles to analyse the consequences of public policies. Initially, like his senior colleagues Theodore Schultz and D. Gale Johnson, he focused on agricultural issues. Later, as new national priorities emerged, George’s pioneering research on amenities and city bigness helped shape modern urban economics. His early framing of urban pollution control in terms of the benefits of improved health, visibility, and other amenities is now part of environmental economics. George recognised the power of market forces but also the existence of nonmarket goods and externalities. For efficiency reasons, governments must intervene in otherwise competitive markets. However, his research often showed that markets still play a major role in the allocation of resources. In analysing proposed policies within a market context, George was instrumental in developing a Chicago approach. Throughout his career, he was also an extraordinarily generous mentor and funder of graduate students.

Keywords: Benefit-cost analysis; Amenities; Optimal city size; Residential location; Valuing health; Evidence-based policy; Economic Research Service; Rural poverty; Mentor; Environmental policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-01775-9_29

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