Johnson Picks Eckstein To Be Economic Advisor

Otto Eckstein, professor of Economics, will become the first Faculty member to serve on the President's Council of Economic Advisors. The 36-year old expert on price-wage relationships was nominated by President Johnson Saturday.

Eckstein will take a one-year leave of absence from the University and return to his teaching duties in September, 1965.

Before he can officially take his seat on the council, Eckstein must testify before the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency, and then win "consent" from the full Senate. These steps are considered mere formalities, however.

After he has received this official confirmation, Eckstein will serve until the expiration of Johnson's term in January, 1965, and if Johnson is re-elected, he will continue in the post throughout the summer.

Even without the appointment, Eckstein had planned to take a year off from his teaching to continue research on price-wage interaction under a Ford Foundation grant. Now he is uncertain how much work in this area he will be able to do.

Next year Eckstein's courses (Economics 125, 251 and 252) will be taught by Prof. George Break from the University of California.

Eckstein was graduated from Princeton in 1951 and received his doctorate here in 1955.

In 1959-60, Eckstein served as technical director to the Joint Congressional Economic Committee on Employment, Growth, and Price Levels. He has also been a consultant to the Treasury Department, the Council of Economic Advisors itself, and the Council for Economic Development, a private organization.

His major contribution to contemporary economics is a study published in 1961. Entitled "Steel and the Postwar Inflation." It argues that the rapid increase in steel prices in the 1950's was the main reason for the decade's unexpectedly high rise of prices.