Economist Leontief to Get $240,000 Research Grant

The Rockefeller Foundation announced yesterday a six-year grant of $240,000 to Wassily W. Leontief, Henry Lee Professor of Economics, for continuing his research on the American economy.

Leontief has been working in this field for the past eight years with Rockefeller funds. The Foundation gave him $100,000 in 1948 and $140,000 more in 1952, each grant being for four years. The results of the first four years of his work were published in 1953 under the title, "The Structure of American Economy."

A report is published each year, along with magazine articles by members of the group giving the progress of the research. Copies are sent to economists throughout the United States and to many in foreign countries who are studying the American economy. A progress report is scheduled for April, 1956, describing last year's activity.

Leontief has been interested in this subject ever since he came to this country in 1931. In 1948, with Foundation funds, he built up a small staff to work with him. The staff, which varies in number, is composed of professors, instructors, and even a few students. Leontief, reached in Washington last night, said that he was especially interested in getting students to work on the project and integrating them gradually into the staff.

Under the new six-year grant, Leontief will have a freer hand in employing the money than he previously had under the four year subsidies. His studies will be concerned with the structure and development of the United States economy. His group will study the interrelationship of technicological change, national resources, change in the structure of the consumers amount, and the increase in national income.