Frank H. Knight

Risk, Uncertainty and Profit (Dodo Press) Frank H. Knight

Frank Hyneman Knight (1885-1972) was an important economist of the twentieth century. He obtained a B. S. and an M. A. (the latter in German) in 1913 at the University of Tennessee. He then moved to Cornell University for doctoral studies. His initial main subject was philosophy, but he soon switched to economics. He studied with Alvin Johnson and Allyn Young, who both supervised the work on his dissertation that was completed in 1916 under the title Cost, Value and Profit. He would subsequently revise it for publication under its more familiar name Risk, Uncertainty and Profit (1921). The famously opinionated Knight used his numerous book reviews in Chicago's Journal of Political Economy as a vehicle for his thoughts on many subjects. As a result, he was embroiled in many debates with the most prominent economists of his day ranging over capital theory, welfare theory, Keynesian theory and positivist methodology. His other works include: Cost of Production and Price Over Long and Short Periods (1921) and The Ethics of Competition (1923).