Mark Perlman papers, 1952-2002

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Summary

Creator:
Perlman, Mark, 1923-2006
Abstract:
Mark Perlman (1923-2006) was Emeritus University Professor of Economics at the University of Pittsburgh. This collection documents his professional life through his correspondence. It forms part of the Economists' Papers Archive.
Extent:
62.7 Linear Feet (42 boxes.)
12 Megabytes (One set.)
Language:
Material in English.
Collection ID:
RL.01014

Background

Scope and content:

This collection documents Perlman's professional life almost exclusively through his extensive correspondence (and indexes for this correspondence) from 1952-2001. It reflects his time on the faculty of Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Pittsburgh, and his research interests of work arbitration, trade unions, and the economics of public health. Among the correspondents are Moses Abramovitz, Martin Shubik, and Martin Bronfenbrenner, and there is especially rich correspondence in the years around the publication of his works Judges in Industry: A Study of Labor Arbitration in Australia (1954) and Spatial, Regional, and Population Economics: Essays in Honor of Edgar M. Hoover (1972). Additional correspondence relates to Perlman's founding and editorship of the Journal of Economic Literature.

Biographical / historical:

Mark Perlman (1923-2006) was a white American academic economist who was born in Madison, Wisconsin to economist Selig Perlman. He left univeristy to enlist in the US Army during World War II, but he eventually graduated with a BA and MA from the University of Wisconsin in 1947 and a PhD from Columbia University in 1950.

He taught at Princeton University, the University of Hawaii (1951), Cornell University (1952-1954), Johns Hopkins University (1955-1961), and the University of Pittsburgh (1961-1993). There, he served as department chair from 1965-1970 and was named a University Professor in 1968. He was forced to retire at age 70 due to university policy.

He made contributions to the fields of economics, history, and public health and specialized at various times on labor economics and industrial relations, demographic economics, and the history of economic thought. He authored more than 40 books and founded the Journal of Economic Literature in 1968. He remained managing editor until 1981 and founded the Journal of Evolutionary Economics in 1989.

In his dissertation, "Judges in Industry," he applied his interest in the development of American industrial government (and particularly, in approaches to collective decision-making in industry) to the Australian Arbitration Court. This study concerned the role of employer and union organization as well as the cost and price structure of particular industries in getting the losing party to accept its awards. It was used in 1954 in the Boilermakers Case as the basis for finding the 50-year-old arbitration system unconstitutional. His next book, Labor Union Theories in America: Background and Development, and other early work dealt with the history, practices, and theories of American labor unionism.

While at Johns Hopkins, he became interested in the economics of public health with an emphasis on preventive health care. In 1963, he began his collaboration with Edgar M. Hoover on Spatial, Regional, and Population Economics: Essays in Honor of Edgar M. Hoover, a work concerned with demographic economics, and particularly with the lag in the profession's consciousness between the demographic empirical changes and the modification of theoretical models.

He was married to Naomi Waxman and had one daughter, Abigail Williams.

Acquisition information:
The Mark Perlman papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library as gifts between 1992-2002 and from Ghary Mongiovi in 2008.
Processing information:

Processed by Melissa Delbridge, Joann Kleinneuir, Lisa Stark, and Keary Warner, June 1996.

Encoded by Stephen Douglas Miller and Cat Saleeby.

Electronic records processed by Zachary Tumlin, June 2023.

Accessions described in this colleciton guide: 1997-0208, 1999-0188, 2000-0098, 2001-0071, 2002-0119, and 2008-0020.

Arrangement:

The Mark Perlman papers are arranged into two series: Correspondence and Subject Files.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

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Restrictions:

Access note. Some materials in this collection are electronic records that require special equipment. Contact Research Services with questions.

Access restricted. Five accessions require additional arrangement, description, and/or screening because they are unprocessed. Contact Research Services for more information.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the Rubenstein Library's Citations, Permissions, and Copyright guide.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Mark Perlman papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University.

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