Ingrid H. Rima

Ingrid Hahne Rima (March 13, 1925 – December 25, 2015) was a German-born American economist and historian of economic thought. She taught at Temple University in Philadelphia until her retirement in 2011, edited the Eastern Economic Journal from 1979 to 1991, and was president of the History of Economics Society in 1993–94. Her textbook Development of Economic Analysis went through seven editions between 1967 and 2009.

Early life and education

Ingrid Hahne was born on March 13, 1925, in Barmen, Germany (now part of Wuppertal). She grew up in New York. She received a BA from Hunter College in 1945 and an MA from the University of Pennsylvania in 1946. At Penn she studied international relations and monetary economics, with Sidney Weintraub as her mentor, and received her PhD in 1951 with a dissertation titled "Price Discrimination and Economic Welfare with Special Reference to Public Utilities". She later wrote about the influence of her German émigré professors on her development as an economist.

Career

Rima joined the economics faculty at Temple University, where she taught until her retirement in 2011. She taught the university's courses in the history of economics; no such course was offered at Temple again until 2012.

Eastern Economic Journal

From 1979 to 1991 Rima edited the Eastern Economic Journal, the journal of the Eastern Economic Association, succeeding Louis Salkever as its first editor from outside the association's founding circle at Bloomsburg. A 2024 history of the association credits her with defending the journal's commitment to publishing non-neoclassical work, securing funding from Temple to cover its publication costs during financial difficulties, and pressing for by-law changes adopted in 1984 committing the association to "encourage the freedom of research and discussion" while remaining non-partisan.

History of Economics Society

Rima was president of the History of Economics Society in 1993–94.

Research

Rima's work spanned the history of economic thought, labor economics and Post-Keynesian economics. Her textbook Development of Economic Analysis, first published in 1967, surveys economic thought from antiquity through the twentieth century, including Keynesian economics, econometrics and the Chicago school; its seventh edition was published by Routledge in 2009. She edited collections on the measurement and quantification of economic concepts and on the classical tradition in economic thought, and on the legacy of Joan Robinson.

Recognition

In 2007 Mathew Forstater, Gary Mongiovi and Steven Pressman edited a Festschrift in her honor, Post-Keynesian Macroeconomics: Essays in Honour of Ingrid Rima, with contributions by economists including G. C. Harcourt and John Smithin, covering political economy, labour economics, the history of economic thought and macroeconomics.

Death

Rima died on December 25, 2015.

Selected works

  • Development of Economic Analysis. Homewood, Ill.: Irwin, 1967; 7th ed., London: Routledge, 2009.
  • (ed.) The Joan Robinson Legacy. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1991.
  • (ed.) Measurement, Quantification and Economic Analysis: Numeracy in Economics. London: Routledge, 1995.
  • (ed.) The Classical Tradition in Economic Thought. Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1995.
  • (ed.) Labor Markets in a Global Economy: A Macroeconomic Perspective. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1996.