Erik Thorbecke, economist with global impact, dies at 97 | Cornell Chronicle

"Erik Thorbecke, one of the creators of a widely used metric for measuring poverty, died on April 26 in Fort Bragg, California. He was 97. Thorbecke joined Cornell in 1974, serving as the H.E. Babcock Professor of Economics and Food Economics in the Department of Economics (College of Arts and Sciences) and the Division of Nutritional Sciences (College of Agriculture and Life Sciences) from 1978 to 2001; he became professor emeritus in 2001."

"Like many economists, Basu was familiar, long before he came to Cornell, with the name "Thorbecke" from the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) Index, introduced in a 1984 paper - one of the most highly cited studies on poverty - with James Foster, Ph.D. '82 and Joel Greer, Ph.D. '85. Since expanded to a family of indices, FGT has emerged as the globally accepted technique of poverty assessment and is used internationally for measuring the severity and distribution of poverty, said David Sahn."

""Erik Thorbecke will always be special for me, not just for his intellectual commitments and passion for research, but also because of his innate sense of justice and the high ethical standards he brought to his work and life," said Kaushik Basu, the Carl Marks Professor of International Studies (A&S)."

""Professor Erik Thorbecke was a towering and inspiring figure. His commitment and influence were felt by an entire generation of economists and scholars focused on promoting inclusive economic development," Sahn said. "I witnessed Erik's enduring dedication to his students, both at Cornell and at the African Economic Research Consortium in Nairobi where he mentor"

Erik Thorbecke died on April 26 in Fort Bragg, California, at age 97. He joined Cornell in 1974 and served as H.E. Babcock Professor of Economics and Food Economics, with appointments in economics and nutritional sciences from 1978 to 2001, then became professor emeritus in 2001. His work focused on economic and agricultural development, poverty alleviation, and nutrition, with global impact on efforts to address poverty and injustice. His scholarship over five decades helped shape modern development economics. He co-created the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) Index in 1984, which became a globally accepted technique for measuring the severity and distribution of poverty. The FGT framework expanded into a family of indices used internationally for poverty assessment.

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