Director, Aaron (1901–2004)

Abstract

Aaron Director’s enduring contribution to economics came via his role in the development of the Chicago law and economics tradition. Director was born in Charterisk (in present-day Ukraine) in 1901 and emigrated to the United States with his family in 1913. He received his undergraduate degree from Yale University and his graduate training at the University of Chicago. Although he came to Chicago in 1927 to work with Paul Douglas on labour economics, it was Frank Knight and Jacob Viner who, via their price theory courses, had the greatest influence on him. Director remained at Chicago as a graduate student and part-time instructor until 1934. The 1930s were a heady period at Chicago, where the student body included George Stigler, Paul Samuelson (who credits Director’s teaching with stimulating his interest in economics), and Milton Friedman – each of whom helped to reshape economic thinking in the middle third of the 20th century – as well as Rose Director (Aaron’s sister and, eventually, Rose Friedman). Aaron Director was very much part of this milieu. He left the University of Chicago for the US Treasury Department in 1934 and, save for an aborted attempt to complete a dissertation on the history of the Bank of England, remained in Washington, DC, until 1946, when he returned to the University of Chicago to take up a position in the Law School, where he remained until his retirement in 1966.