Ec Professor Refuses Job As Wage-Price Czar

A Harvard professor of Economics has for the second time turned down an offer of a position with the federal government as director of the President's Council on Wage and Price Stability.

Professor Hendrick S. Houthakker yesterday acknowledged an "informal" offer to direct the council, and said that he had been considered for the same position a year earlier.

Houthakker said that he did not accept the offer because he was unable to "disengage" himself from "various commitments" at the time, but did not specify those commitments.

He did, however, say that the job "interested him as such," and he did give it some consideration.

The directorship entails "the analysis of price and wage developments and government decisions" to determine "whether they are consistent with anti-inflationary policy," Houthakker said.

Houthakker worked in the Nixon administration as a member of the Council of Economic Advisors between 1969 and 1971 while on leave from Harvard, where he has taught since 1960.

The directorship of the Council on Wage and Price Stability has not been filled since the former director became undersecretary of labor.