FABRICANT, SOLOMON

FABRICANT, SOLOMON (1906–1989), U.S. economist. Fabricant, who was born in Brooklyn, New York, received his B.A. from New York University and his M.A. (1930) and Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University (1938). In 1930 he joined the National Bureau of Economic Research as a research assistant. He was connected with the Bureau throughout his career, and from 1953 to 1965 was director of research. In 1947, after World War II service with the War Production Board and the European regional office of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency (UNRRA), he became an associate professor of economics at New York University and a year later a full professor. In 1955 he became a member of the NBER board of directors, and a director emeritus in 1981. During his 50 years with the Bureau, he produced research on such topics as manufacturing output and employment, business cycles, government employment, and changes in productivity. Regarded as the world authority on the characteristics of business cycles and the "father" of current productivity measures, Fabricant devoted himself to research and writing on developmental economics, business fluctuations, and macroeconomic theory. His numerous publications include Output of Manufacturing Industries, 1899 – 1937 (1940), Employment in Manufacturing, 1899 – 1939 (1942), The Trend of Government Activity in the United States since 1900 (1952), Basic Facts on Productivity Change (1959), Measurement of Technological Change (1965), A Primer on Productivity (1969), Five Monographs on Business Income (with C. Warburton, 1973), and The Economic Growth of the United States: Perspective and Prospective (1979). (Joachim O. Ronall / Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)