Theodore C. Bergstrom

摘要

Theodore (Ted) C. Bergstrom's career is noteworthy for the breadth, depth, and originality of his many contributions, and for the often breathtaking clarity with which he constructs his insights in the minds of his readers. Ted Bergstrom is a scholar's scholar, and a teacher's teacher. Bergstrom's originality is evident in his simple but powerful observation that if local public goods are also normal goods, then one can fairly assume the marginal rate of substitution of the median voter is also that of the person with the median income. Using median characteristics across localities, one can estimate the demand function for local public expenditures (American Economic Review 1973; Econometrica 1983) and test its efficiency (Journal of Public Economics 1988).