Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Modigliani, Franco

(Encyclopedia)Modigliani, Franco, 1918–2003, American economist, b. Rome. Jewish, antifascist, and trained as a lawyer, he fled Mussolini's Italy in 1938, settling in the United States in 1939, where he studied e...

Lewis, Gilbert Newton

(Encyclopedia)Lewis, Gilbert Newton, 1875–1946, American chemist, b. Weymouth, Mass., grad. Harvard (B.A., 1896; Ph.D., 1899). He taught at Harvard and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1907–12) and...

Milgrom, Paul Robert

(Encyclopedia)Milgrom, Paul Robert, 1948–, American economist, b. Detroit, Ph.D. Stanford, 1979. He has been a professor of economics at Stanford since 1987, and previously taught at Northwestern Univ. (1979–83...

Lemaître, Georges, Abbé

(Encyclopedia)Lemaître, Georges, Abbé ləmĕtˈrə [key], 1894–1966, Belgian astrophysicist, mathematician, and Catholic priest. In 1927 he became professor of astrophysics at the Univ. of Louvain and proposed...

Bridges, Calvin Blackman

(Encyclopedia)Bridges, Calvin Blackman, 1889–1938, American geneticist, b. Schuyler Falls, N.Y., grad. Columbia (B.S., 1912; Ph.D., 1916). In his research he collaborated with T. H. Morgan, A. H. Sturtevant, and ...

value, in economics

(Encyclopedia)value, in economics, worth of a commodity in terms of other commodities, or in terms of money (see price). Value depends on both desirability and scarcity. The marginal theory of value, pioneered in t...

evolution

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Plant and animal evolution [Modified from Alfred Gunderson in Brooklyn Botanic Garden Leaflets, Ser. 18, No. 4 (1930); used by permission.] evolution, concept that embodies the belief that ex...

Yukawa, Hideki

(Encyclopedia)Yukawa, Hideki hēˈdĕkē yo͞okäˈwä [key], 1907–81, Japanese physicist, grad. Kyoto Univ., 1929, Ph.D. Osaka Univ., 1938. He was professor of physics at Kyoto Univ. from 1939 to 1970. He receiv...

Cauchy, Augustin Louis, Baron

(Encyclopedia)Cauchy, Augustin Louis, Baron ōgüstăNˈ lwē bärôNˈ kōshēˈ [key], 1789–1857, French mathematician. He was professor simultaneously (1816–30) at the École polytechnique, the Sorbonne, and...

business cycles

(Encyclopedia)business cycles, fluctuations in economic activity characterized by periods of rising and falling fiscal health. During a business cycle, an economy grows, reaches a peak, and then begins a downturn f...

Browse by Subject