William R. Allen
The bio below comes from a published article and may now be dated.
William R. Allen has labored primarily in the scholarly fields of international economics, monetary economics, and the history of economic theory. He has educated the public through his popular writings and radio work as “the Midnight Economist.” After serving in the Army Air Corps, he obtained his A.B. (1948) from Cornell College and Ph.D. (1953) from Duke University. He taught at Washington University prior to joining the UCLA faculty in 1952. Like the economists interviewed in the present paper, he has worked for government as consultant to the Balance of Payments Division of the Department of Commerce. He has received teaching awards from the UCLA Alumni Association, the Western Economic Association, and the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge. He has been Vice President and President of the Western Economic Association, Vice President of the History of Economics Society, and Vice President and a member of the Executive Committee of the Southern Economic Association. Among his many publications is his University Economics, coauthored with Armen Alchian. From 1978 to 1992 more than 200 radio stations carried daily broadcasts of “the Midnight Economist” written and delivered by Allen. He has been Chair of the UCLA Department of Economics, President of the International Institute for Economic Research, Vice President of the Institute for Contemporary Studies, and Associate of the Reason Foundation.