Ta-Chung Liu

Ta-Chung Liu (October 27, 1914 – August 14, 1975) was a Chinese American economist and econometrician. He was a professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University and Cornell University.^[1]

Born in Peking, he earned a degree in civil engineering from the National University of Communication in 1936.^[2] Influenced by Fritz Machlup, he switched to economics as he began graduate studies at Cornell University. Liu earned a PhD in 1940 under Donald English.^[3]

In the 1950s and 60s, Liu criticized the “Cowles Commission method” of structural equation modelling and advocated reduced form estimation instead,^[4] foreshadowing Christopher Sims' VAR method of 1980.^[5][6]

References

1. Klein, L. R.; Nerlove, M.; Tsiang, S. C. (1977). "Ta-Chung Liu, 1914–1975". Econometrica 45 (2): 527–529. JSTOR 1911227.
2. Ta-Chung Liu: October 27, 1914 – August 14, 1975
3. The Econometric Practice of Ta-Chung Liu
4. Liu, Ta-Chung (1960). "Underidentification, Structural Estimation, and Forecasting". Econometrica 28 (4): 855–865. JSTOR 1907567.
5. Qin, Duo (1993). The Formation of Econometrics: A Historical Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 161–163. ISBN 0-19-828388-1.
6. Chao, Hsiang-Ke; Huang, Chao-Hsi (2011). "Ta-Chung Liu's Exploratory Econometrics". History of Political Economy 43 (Suppl 1): 140–165. doi:10.1215/00182702-1158709.