Theodore O. Yntema (1900-1985)

Director: 1938 – November 1942

A.B., Hope College, 1921; A.M., 1922. and C.P.A., 1924, University of Illinois; Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1929

Theodore O. Yntema became director of research of the Cowles Commission at the time of the move to Chicago in September 1939. He joined the faculty of the University of Chicago in 1923 and was professor of statistics in the School of Business, 1930–44, and professor of business and economic policy, 1944–49.

He was economic consultant in the National Recovery Administration, 1934–35; head of economics and statistics in the Division of Industrial Materials of the Defense Commission, 1940; consulting economist and statistician for the United States Steel Corporation, 1938–40; consultant in the War Shipping Administration 1942; director of research of the Committee for Economic Development, 1942–49; consulting economist for Stein Roe & Farnham, 1945–49; consulting economist, Lord, Abbett & Co., 1946–49; consulting economist, Ford Motor Company, 1947–49; and consultant for the Economic Stabilization Agency, 1951.

In 1940 Yntema became a director of the National Bureau of Economic Research. In 1949 Yntema joined Ford Motor Company as vice president-finance, and in 1950 became a director of the Company. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and of the American Statistical Association.

He authored A Mathematical Reformulation of the Theory of International Trade, 1932, and co-authored Jobs and Markets, 1946. Yntema also directed most of the research leading to Volume I of TNEC Studies, published by the United States Steel Corporation, and from 1942–49 also planned and directed most of the research leading to the Research Reports of the Committee for Economic Development. 

[Abstracted from A Twenty Year Research Report 1932–1952]