TINBERGEN JAN: (1903-1994) Dutch Economist, winner of the first Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, 1969. ...

TINBERGEN JAN: (1903-1994) Dutch Economist, winner of the first Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, 1969. Autograph Manuscript Signed, Jan Tinbergen, eight pages, 4to, n.p. (The Hague?) n.d. (1980s/1990s?). The manuscript, with a few additions and corrections in ink and pencil, is of an essay entitled Equality as an Aim of Policy originally prepared for the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development and comprising four sections, stating, in part, 'In recent years we observe a revival of the equality or equity ideal. Various democratic socialist political parties make attempts to express more explicitly through what policies they can hope to attain at least less inequality. It is not a new concept; in fact socialist movements from the beginning of their existence have seen social justice as one of their aims…..What was lacking, however, was a precise definition of the aim, and a modern scientific analysis of policies which could help attain the aim……In the course of history various attempts have been made to define equality….One interpretation which has to be abandoned right away is the primitive idea that all human beings are equal in all relevant aspects……''Equality before God'' is a religious version of equality, felt by many as a consolation for the underprivileged in our temporary human existence and by others as a warning to the privileged……Non-religious idealists, and religious idealists when dealing with worldly affairs, have at times mentioned income equality as a goal of socio-economic policies or orders……Equal incomes for all with the present techniques of socio-economic policies will soon produce scarcity of applicants for difficult or responsible occupations and abundance of the supply of those wanting to take the more comfortable jobs. Attempts in the Soviet Union and Israel have shown this. They had to be abandoned…….A political version of equality consists of equal voting rights……In the liberalist era general voting rights brought political democracy, but hardly any socio-economic democracy, as a consequence of the principle of laissez-faire. As a correction on the admittedly impossible concepts of complete equality and income equality the idea of creating ''equal opportunities'' has been forwarded. While in stratified societies such as the Indian society, with its different ''castes'' an element of equal opportunities can already be brought by the official elimination of castes, in present-day developed societies equal opportunities of that type are self evident……The various interpretations of equality discussed are indicative of the belief that, one way or another, human beings have something that entitles them to an as yet undefined type of equality…….In recent years a new attempt has been made to interpret the concept of equality as a possible aim of socio-economic policies……Put briefly, the aim of equality should be to reach a situation of equal satisfaction to every citizen. Here the word satisfaction is meant to be identical to what is called nowadays welfare……Another word, to be used with much caution, might be happiness…..The operational significance of the new interpretation depends entirely on the measurability of welfare. The assumption has to be made that welfare is measurable. I see no reason to reject this assumption; it is not the first time that such an assumption is being made and examples from economics (for instance, job evaluation) and physics (for instance, the measurement of temperature or ''degree of heat'') show its scientific productivity…..it is useful to distinguish between three different elements in the mathematical formulation of the utility or welfare function. A first class of elements will be called variables……a second class of elements consists of parameters…….The third class of elements in a welfare function are its coefficients……In principle this means that we accept any suggestion about people being different, provided that the difference be proved by measurement. This is perfectly sound methodology, which has brought the enormous advances in the physical sciences first and in psychology and related disciplines somewhat later…….The equality of the coefficients occurring in the welfare function is the key to the measurement of welfare. To begin with, we can consider a group of people with the same parameters, but with different variables…..In the equilibrium situation attained in that way the values of the variables, chosen and imposed ones, do still differ among the individuals of the group. Thus some will have chosen a more ''difficult'' job than others, carrying with it a higher income……' Accompanied by Tinbergen's personal printed visiting card signed by him with his name alone in blue ink. Each of the pages of the manuscript are stapled together in the upper left corner. VG