Figures

Theodore Schultz

Economist

Citation Formats

General Reference

Agriculture and Farming Atlas. "Theodore Schultz." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://agriculture.interactiveatlas.org/figures/theodore-schultz.

APA Style

Agriculture and Farming Atlas. (n.d.). Theodore Schultz. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://agriculture.interactiveatlas.org/figures/theodore-schultz

BibTeX

@misc{agricultureandfarmingatlas-theodore-schultz,
  author = {Agriculture and Farming Atlas},
  title = {Theodore Schultz},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://agriculture.interactiveatlas.org/figures/theodore-schultz},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

The American economist who showed that farmers in poor countries make rational decisions given the incentives they face, founding work in the economics of agricultural development; awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1979.

Facts

Birth Year

1902 1

Death Year

1998 1

Nationality

American 1

Defining Contribution

Argued that farmers in poor countries who appear not to innovate are making the rational choice given high taxes and artificially low prices set by their own governments, reframing agricultural underdevelopment as a problem of incentives rather than of peasant irrationality. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Works In

Agricultural Economics

Source Theodore Schultz (Wikipedia)

Sources

1. Theodore Schultz (Wikipedia)

Wikimedia FoundationAgricultural Development Theory sectionView the Source

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