Zvi Griliches, Clark Medalist 1965

Citation on the Occasion of the Presentation of the Medal

Every other year the American Economic Association awards the John Bates Clark Medal "to that economist under the age of forty who is adjudged to have made a significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge." The award is made by a joint vote of the Association's Executive Committee and its Committee on Honors and Awards. This year the recipient of the medal is Professor Zvi Griliches, of the University of Chicago.

Professor Griliches has made noteworthy theoretical and empirical contributions to the study of technological change. In his initial work he introduced and tested most interesting hypotheses on the diffusion of innovations, relating their spread both to the difficulties of learning and communication and to the profitability of innovations. In subsequent research he has been concerned with quality changes over time; and in the course of these investigations he has made important contributions related to the problems of the measurement of capital and of quality changes in price index numbers. Recent work on technological change in relation to growth in agriculture and manufacturing in the United States has yielded ingenious and significant contributions concerning the impact on production functions of quality changes in inputs.