Fonds 1303 - Melvyn A. Fuss fonds

Identity area

Reference code

UTA 1303

Title

Melvyn A. Fuss fonds

Date(s)

  • 1965-2006 (Creation)

Level of description

Fonds

Extent and medium

1.43 m of textual records (12 boxes)
electronic records

Context area

Name of creator

(1940-)

Biographical history

Melvyn A. Fuss was born in Toronto on 29 March 1940. He received his first two degrees from the University of Toronto: a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Physics in 1963 and a Master of Arts in Economics in 1965. This was followed by graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, from which he received his doctorate in Economics in 1970.

From 1969 to 1972, Professor Fuss was first an instructor and then an assistant professor at Harvard University. He taught principles and the economics of regulation to undergraduates and, to graduates, industrial organization, introductory econometrics, advanced econometrics,
and microeconomic theory. In 1972, he joined the Department of Economics at the University of Toronto where, at the undergraduate level, he specialized in microeconomic theory, industrial organization, econometrics, and the economics of regulation. At the graduate level he taught courses in microeconomics theory and econometrics. He retired in 2005 and is now Professor Emeritus.

Professor Fuss has also been active in many administrative positions at the University of Toronto. He was associate chair of the Department of Economics in 1984-1985, departmental chair from 1985-1990, and acting chair in 2000-2001. He has sat on many University committees and also on the Department of Economics tenure, recruiting and other committees. For thirty years he served as a research associate at the Institute for Policy Analysis (1972-2002); also for ten years (1992-2002) at the Centre for International Studies. Outside the University of Toronto, he has been a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (USA) from 1983 to the present.

He was invited twice (1973 and 1987-1988) to be a visiting professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he held graduate seminars in production theory and econometrics, and once (2003-2004) at the London Business School. He has also been a visiting scholar at the
University of California, Berkeley (1975), at Stanford University (1975-1976) and a visiting research scholar at the Bank of Israel (1987-1988). He has also served on scholarly publishing committees, including being editor of the Journal of Productivity Analysis from 1992 to 1995.

Professor Fuss’ research activities “have been oriented primarily toward the specification and estimation of cost functions, and the measurement and analysis of productivity. His articles have appeared in journals such as the American Economic Review, Econometrica, and the Journal of Econometrics…[he] is a co-editor of a two-volume treatise, Production Economics: A dual approach to theory and applications, considered to be a standard reference work in the analysis of production and cost functions. He has also written a book, co-authored with Leonard Waverman, entitled Costs and productivity in automobile production: The challenge of Japanese efficiency...(1992). Professor Fuss has also co-edited two volumes in the Journal of Econometrics Annuals series: The econometrics of temporary equilibrium (with E. Berndt –
1986) and Essays in Applied Economics (with R. Gronau and A. Pakes – 1995)." [1]

Professor Fuss has also served for many years as a consultant to businesses and governments and is a director of Law and Economics Consulting Group, Ltd. His consulting work has focussed on “the application of empirical methods to regulatory, antitrust, and liability and damage issues, especially in the telecommunications and energy sectors. He has appeared as an expert witness in proceedings at the Restrictive Trade Practices Commission, the Canadian Radio, Television and Telecommunications Commission, the Alberta Public Utilities Commission, the Ontario Energy Board, the Ontario Legislature, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Connecticut Department of Public Utilities Control.”[2] Other organizations to which he has provided advice include the Association of Canadian Distillers,
Chrysler Corporation, Union Gas, the United States Postal Service and the Warner Music Group.

Professor Fuss has received a number of honours for his teaching and research. They include the American Telephone and Telegraph Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Public Utility Economics in 1971-1972, a Canada Council Leave Fellowship in 1978-1979, and a Canadian Studies Visiting Professorship, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1987-1988.

Professor Fuss is married, with one child.

NOTES

[1] From a biographic sketch for academic purposes provided by Professor Fuss.
[2] From a biographic sketch for consulting purposes provided by Professor Fuss.

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Scope and content

Records of Professor Melvyn Fuss, Professor Emeritus of Economics, consisting of correspondence, memoranda, reports, lecture notes, manuscripts and publications documenting his education; his teaching at Harvard University; his administrative duties, teaching and research at the University of Toronto; and his consulting work. Fuss’ research has focused on the specification and estimation of production and cost functions and the measurement and analysis of productivity, and his consulting work has been primarily in the telecommunications and energy sectors.

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Records designated in series and in appendices are restricted for 30 years. Permission of the donor required. All other records are open.

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Accession

B2006-0013

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Dates of creation revision deletion

-Original finding aid by Harold Averill, 2007

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