Sigbert Prais

Sigbert Jon Prais FBA (19 December 1928 – 22 February 2014) was an economist and had been the Senior Research Fellow at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) since 1970.

Life

On 19 December 1928, Sigbert Jon Prais was born in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany; he was the oldest of four children to orthodox Jewish parents. His family arrived in Britain in 1934 as Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi oppression in Germany. Prais' father established a manufacturing company, that made metal frames and ornaments for women's handbags, in Birmingham. He was sent to school in London and later went on to continue his studies at the King Edward's School, Birmingham. From King Edward's School, Prais matriculated to the University of Birmingham for his undergraduate studies and then moved on to the PhD program at the Department of Applied Economics at the Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.

While at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, Prais had collaborated with Hendrik Houtthaker on a study that focused on pre-war household expenditures. In 1955, Prais and Houtthaker's study was published as Analysis of Family Budgets; the study would prove to be a foundation for future studies in subsequent research.[1]

Prais had found great success in the field of economics after having his study published and was quickly asked to be a lecturer at the Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Department of Applied Economics. In 1953, when Prais was just 24 years old, he had taken up a fellowship at the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics; located in Chicago. At the Cowles Commission, he would meet and make important connections for his career, most notably: C. B. Winsten.[1]

Together, Prais and Winsten had conceived their "Prais–Winsten estimation", they had formulated the econometric equation as a modification to the "Cochrane–Orcutt estimation" equation and is believed to a more efficient formula for estimating the linear model.[1]

In 1954, Prais was able to maintain his lecturer position at the Department of Applied Economics at the Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University while pursuing his career at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (or NIESR) in London.[1]

From NIESR, Prais had instantly went to work with Peter Hart on research into the growth of Great Britain Companies. Prais and Hart's research lead to the publication of two important studies on the matter: the first, In 1956, with Hart title "The Analysis of Business Concentration: A Statistical Approach", and second, in 1976, "The Evolution of Giant Firms in Britain".[1]

When the new decade came around (the 1960s), Prais left academia and the field of economics for a full decade; he took up work in Birmingham in the Industrial trade. He worked at his father's business as the finance director. As the finance director of his family's business, Prais led the company to a successful flotation on the London Stock Exchange in 1964.[1]

After leaving the family business, Prais decided to re-enter academia and the field of economics. He started back on with NIESR, and at first, focused his time there researching an answer to why Great Britain's industrial performance had seemed to be lagging; Prais soon came to the conclusion that it was poor quality education and training to be the source of the root of the problem. His growing interests in the study and comparisons of different countries' educational systems and methods came to be an internationally renowned; In 1987, Prais' recognition for his innovative and expert analysis of international educational systems led to his appointment to the Kenneth Baker's mathematics working group. While on Kenneth Baker's mathematics working group, Prais had campaigned hard to raise the standards of education in Great Britain. In 1985, Prais was elected a fellow to the British Academy.[1]

On 22 February 2014, Prais died from colon cancer.[2]

Education

Prais was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, the University of Birmingham (MCom) and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge (PhD 1953; ScD 1974).

Career

Positions and honours

Publications

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Professor Sigbert Prais – obituary". The London Telegraph. 26 March 2014. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  2. ↑ Reisz, Matthew (24 April 2014). "Sigbert Prais, 1928–2014". Times Higher Education. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
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