The William Baumol papers document his career as an economist and artist. The collection provides an overview of his professional activities, including his research on the cost disease, unbalanced growth, productivity growth, entrepreneurship, increasing returns and international trade, anti-trust policy, contestable markets, market structure, macroeconomic theory, and interest rate and monetary theory, among other topics. Baumol's research and writings on the economics of the arts, undertaken and co-authored with his wife Hilda, are included in the collection.
The collection also documents his collaboration and communication with prominent economists such as Maurice Allais, Gary Becker, Alan Blinder, George Dantzig, Robert Dorfman, Milton Friedman, John Kenneth Galbraith, Ralph Gomory, Frank Hahn, Roy Harrod, John Hicks, Ursula Hicks, Samuel Hollander, Nicholas Kaldor, Harold Kuhn, Abba Lerner, Jacob Marschak, Don Patinkin, Lionel Robbins, Joan Robinson, Paul Samuelson, Ralph Turvey, Jacob Viner, and Edward Wolff, among others. Of note is Baumol's longtime collaboration with, and extensive support received from, Sue Anne Batey Blackman.
Along with his scholarship and writings, the collection documents Baumol's leadership roles at the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the C.V. Starr Center for Applied Economics at New York University, as well as his extensive expert witness and consulting activities for the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission, the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Joint Economic Committee, and the Senate Judiciary Committee, among others. Baumol's consulting was often done through the companies Alderson and Sessions, Mathematica, and Consultants in Industry Economics. His notable expert witness testimonies revolved around regulation in telecommunications (particularly the ATT monopoly), airline ticket prices and sales practices, pricing of railroad freight shipping, and other topics.
Materials from Baumol's teaching at Princeton and New York University, departmental, and committee work are included in the collection. The collection also contains samples of Baumol's artwork, including sketches and paintings.
Processed by Shauna Saunders and Paula Jeannet, 2000
Additions processed by Ann G. Langford and Sue-Ellen Katz, 2001
Encoded by Paula Jeannet, Lisa Stark, and Ruth E. Bryan
Later accessions processed and described by Erich Fuchs and Meghan Lyon, 2016.
Additions incorporated and sorted by Jon Cogliano, 2018.
Accession 2020-0078 added by Laurin Penland, 2020.