Robert Fogel quotes

Robert Fogel was an American economist and historian, renowned for his pioneering work in economic history and cliometrics. His research applied quantitative methods to analyze historical events, transforming how scholars understand economic development. He received the Nobel Prize in Economics for his groundbreaking contributions to the field. Here are 15 of his quotes:

The president has very little effect on the economy. If you want to put blame or credit, the main person who influences the business cycle is the head of the Federal Reserve Bank.

Robert Fogel

The rate of technological and human physiological change in the 20th century has been remarkable. Beyond that, a synergy between the improved technology and physiology is more than the simple addition of the two.

Robert Fogel

As we get rich, the basics of life--food, clothing and shelter--become a very small part of total expenditure. And people have enough money to purchase things that enhance them spiritually and I mean the word spiritual not necessarily in a religious sense but in the sense that it adds to your feeling of well-being.

Robert Fogel

The older I get, the more important my view of the family is.

Robert Fogel

In 1890, nearly everyone died on the job, and if they lived long enough not to die on the job, the average age of retirement was 85.

Robert Fogel

We have attacked the traditional interpretation of the economics of slavery not in order to resurrect a defunct system, but in order to correct the perversion of the history of blacks - in order to strike down the view that black Americans were without culture, without achievement, and without development for their first two hundred and fifty years on American soil.

Robert Fogel

Economic history has contributed significantly to the formulation of economic theory. Among the economists who have found history an important source for their ideas are Smith, Malthus, Marx, Marshall, Keynes, Hicks, Arrow, Friedman, Solow, and Becker. Failure to take account of history, as Simon Kuznets (1941) stressed, has often led to a misunderstanding of current economic problems by investigators who have not realized that their generalizations rested upon transient circumstances. Nowhere is the need to recognize the role of long-run dynamics more relevant than in such pressing current issues as medical care, pension policies, and development policies.

Robert Fogel

The first, and overarching, count in the new indictment is that slavery permitted one group of people to exercise unrestrained personal domination over another group of people.

Robert Fogel

Centuries ago it may have been difficult for pregnant women and their children to get proper nourishment, probably leading to smaller - and therefore shorter-lived - adults.

Robert Fogel

Remember, what does 'retirement' mean? It doesn't mean that you're a couch potato. Leisure is not the same thing as rest. If you're bicycling five miles a day, that's leisure, but it certainly takes a lot of effort.

Robert Fogel

In most, if not quite all, parts of the world, the size, shape and longevity of the human body have changed more substantially, and much more rapidly, during the past three centuries than over many previous millennia.

Robert Fogel

I think the most important thing I have done in my life is to raise two boys.

Robert Fogel

One of the most startling events in my life was when my older son was about 16, and he blamed me for all the troubles of the world. So I, I felt like telling him, 'Oh no, I was just like you when I was your age; I wanted to change the world, too.'

Robert Fogel