James Tobin
James Tobin received the 1981 prize in Economic Sciences. This profile brings together the official award record and attributed background on the economist’s work and career.
Personal and professional profile
- Name
- James Tobin [1]
- Full name
- James Tobin [2]
- Birth date
- 1918-03-05 [2]
- Birthplace
- Champaign, IL, USA [2]
- Education
- Harvard University; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; University Laboratory High School [3]
- Fields / occupation
- university teacher; statistician; military personnel; professor; economist [3]
- Prize
- Economic Sciences · 1981 [2]
- Research recognized
- for his analysis of financial markets and their relations to expenditure decisions, employment, production and prices [2]
- Prize share
- 1 [2]
- Affiliation at the award
- Yale University [2]
- Death date
- 2002-03-11 [2]
- Institutions in career record
- Yale University [3]
Research, education and career background
James Tobin (March 5, 1918 – March 11, 2002) was an American economist who served on the Council of Economic Advisers and consulted with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and taught at Yale University. He contributed to the development of key ideas in the Keynesian economics of his generation and advocated government intervention in particular to stabilize output and avoid recessions. His academic work included pioneering contributions to the study of investment, monetary and fiscal policy and financial markets. He also proposed an econometric model for censored dependent variables, the well-known tobit model. [4]
Along with fellow neo-Keynesian economist James Meade in 1977, Tobin proposed nominal GDP targeting as a monetary policy rule in 1980. Tobin received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1981 for "creative and extensive work on the analysis of financial markets and their relations to expenditure decisions, employment, production and prices." [4]
Outside academia, Tobin was widely known for his suggestion of a tax on foreign exchange transactions, now known as the "Tobin tax." This was designed to reduce speculation in the international currency markets, which he saw as dangerous and unproductive. [4]
Selected introductory text by Wikipedia contributors — James Tobin, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Official facts are cited separately.
Award and academic affiliation
The official Nobel record dates the Economic Sciences award to 1981 and lists Yale University as the affiliation at the time. [2]
An affiliation attached to an award describes that point in the person’s career; it does not establish a current appointment. [2]
Education and career timeline
Source-supported connections
Frequently asked questions
When did James Tobin receive the prize in Economic Sciences?
The official award record gives the year as 1981. [2]
Which institution was James Tobin affiliated with at the time of the Economic Sciences award?
Yale University. This is the award-time affiliation. [2]
James Tobin connection map
Select a node to inspect the relationship and source.
Links retain their source-specific meaning. Award-time affiliations and links to related reading are not claims about current appointments or economic causation.
Sources and review dates
- Nobel Prize — official biography and award record ↗
- Nobel Prize — official biography and award record ↗
- Wikidata background facts (CC0) ↗
- Wikipedia contributors — James Tobin (CC BY-SA 4.0) ↗
Reviewed 23 October 2026. Historical dates and award-time affiliations retain their original context. A review date is not an event date. Background sources are identified separately from official records.