This collection documents Fisher's research, teaching, writing, and professional activities. It reflects his wide-ranging interests and expertise, including his collaboration on water management and conflict resolution issues in the Middle East; his consulting work on antitrust lawsuits for assorted corporations and the US Department of Justice; his service as a professor and mentor to numerous economics students; and his correspondence with leading economists, such as Robert Clower, Frank Hahn, Peter Diamond, and Lawrence Klein.
Franklin Marvin Fisher (1934-2019) was a white American academic economist who was born in New York City. He received his PhD from Harvard University in 1959 and spent almost his entire career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1960-2004), where he was appointed the Jane Berkowitz Carlton and Dennis William Carlton Professorship of Microeconomics in 2000.
He made contributions to economic theory, econometric methods, and the empirical analysis of firm and industry behavior, and he was known for his research on aggregation theory, estimation of simultaneous equation models, and the measurement and consequences of industry concentration. Late in his career, he interest shifted to the economics of water distribution in the Middle East. He authored or coauthored 17 books and over 150 articles.
He was actively involved in antitrust policy and notably served as IBM's expert economic witness in US v. IBM (1981) and as the US Department of Justice's expert economic witness in US v. Microsoft (2001). He served as president of the Econometric Society, editor of Econometrica, and director of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal in 1973.
He was married to Ellen Paradise and had three children: Abraham, Abigail, and Naomi.
Processed by Meghan Lyon, Sonia Manseri, Sandra Niethardt, and Meghan Lyon, October 2015; Meghan Lyon, March 2021.
Electronic records processed by Zachary Tumlin, June 2023.
Accessions described in this collection guide: 2005-0064, 2012-0257, and 2019-0170.
