Dr. Walter Y. Oi

Elmer B. Milliman Professor of Economics

Physical Handicap: Blind since 1956  

Education:
U.C.L.A., B.S. (Business Statistics), 1952
U.C.L.A., M.A. (Economics), 1954
University of Chicago, Ph.D. (Economics), 1961

Prior Experience

Full Time Positions:

Instructor, Department of Economics, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa (1957-58).
Research Economist, The Transportation Center, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois (1958-1962).
Instructor, Department of Economics, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois (1959-61).
Associate Professor, Department of Economics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington (1962-1965).
Professor, Department of Economics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington (1965-1967).
Professor, Graduate School of Management, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York (1967-1975).
Professor, Department of Economics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York (1975-1978).
Elmer B. Milliman Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York (1978- to date).
Chairman, Department of Economics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York (1976-1982).

Other Positions:

Consultant to Department of Defense, Office of the Secretary of Defense/Manpower, Washington, D.C. (May 1964 to August 1965).
Consultant to Institute for Defense Analysis, Arlington, Virginia (1966, 1972).
Staff Economist, President's Commission on State Workmen's Compensation Laws (1971-1972).
Consultant, Staff Economist for the President's Commission on an All Volunteer Force Dept. of Defense, Washington, D.C. Feb. 1969 to April 1970)
Consultant to the RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California (1970-1980).
Member of the American Statistical Association Committee to review the research of the Civil Aeronautics Board Staff, (1970-1974).
Visiting Senior Research Economist, Industrial Relations Section, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey (1973-1974).

Honors and Awards

Fellow of the Econometrics Society, January 1976.
President, Western Economics Association International, 1991-1992
Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, April 1993
Distinguished Fellow, American Economics Association, January 1996.
Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service, November 1999
Distinguished Fellow, Society of Labor Economics, April 30, 2004.

Prizes and Appointments:

Social Science Research Council Fellow, 1956
The Emma and Carol Roush Distinguished Visiting Scholar, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University, 1970-71
Adult Co-Chairman (the Draft and National Service) for the White House Conference on Youth, 1970-1971
Visiting Scholar, The Hoover Institution of War Revolution and Peace, Stanford University, 1982
Visiting Chair, J. Fish Smith Professor of Economics, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, September 1984
Vice Chairman, President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, Washington, DC, 1984 to 1989
Member, Advisory Committee, Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin, 1984 to 1994.
Chairman, NYS Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Sept. 1988 to 1992
Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in Behavior Science, Stanford, Calif. Fall 1988
Chairman, Census Advisory Committee for the American Economic Association, 1991 to 1993.

Publications

Books:

The Economic Value of the United States Merchant Marine with A.R. Ferguson, E.M. Lerner, J.S. McGee, L. Rapping, and S.P. Sobotka (The Transportation Center, Evanston, IL: 1961), pp. 545, xxii.

An Analysis of Urban Travel Demands with P.W. Suldiner (Northwestern University Press, Evanston, IL: 1962), pp. 281 + x.

Economics of Private Truck Transportation with A.P. Hurter (William C. Brown Co., Dubuque, Iowa: 1965), pp. 365 + xvii.

Demand Analysis for Air Travel by Super-sonic Transport with N.S. Asher, W.F. Beazer, W.A. Cox, and R.F. Muth, Report No. R118, (Institute for Defense Analyses, Arlington, VA: Dec. 1966), 2 vols.

Journal Articles:

"The Desirability of Price Instability Under Perfect Competition," Econometrica, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Jan, 1961), pp. 58-64.

"Labor as a Quasi-Fixed Factor," Journal of Political Economy, Vol.LXX, No. 6 (Dec. 1962), pp. 538-555.

"The Economic Cost of the Draft" American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 57 (May 1967) 39-62.

"The Neoclassical Foundations of Progress Functions, Economic Journal, (Sept. 1967), Vol. LXXVII, No. 307, pp. 579-594.

"On the Relationship Among Different Members of the k-class," International Economic Review, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Feb. 1969), pp.36-46.

"A Disneyland Dilemma: Two-part Tariffs for a Mickey Mouse Monopoly," Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 85 (Feb. 1971), pp. 77-96.

"The Economics of Product Safety," The Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science (Spring 1973), Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 3-28.

"On the Economics of Industrial Safety," Law and Contemporary Problems, Vol. 38, No. 4, pp. 669-699, Summer/Autumn 1974.

"The Economics of Product Safety: A Rejoinder," Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science, Vol. 5, No. 2, Autumn 1974.

"The Federal Subsidy of Conventional Mass Transit," Policy Analysis, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Fall 1975), pp. 613-658.

"Residential; Location and Labor Supply," Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 84, No. 4, Pt. 2, August 1976, pp. S221-S238.

"Safety at Any Price?" Regulation, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Nov./Dec. 1977), pp. 16-23.

"Academic Tenure and Mandatory Retirement Under the New Law," Science, December 21, 1979, Vol. 206, pp. 1373-1378

"Heterogeneous Firms and the Organization of Production," Economic Inquiry, Vol. XXI, No. 2 (April 1983), pp. 147-171.

"Employment Relations in Dual Labor Markets ("It's Nice Work If You Can Get It")," Journal of Labor Economics, Vol. 8, No. 1, Pt. 2, (1990), pp. S124-S149.

"Disability and a Workfare-Welfare Dilemma," in Disability and Work, edited by Carolyn L. Weaver, (Washington: The AEI Press, 1991) pp. 31-45.

"Low Wages and Small Firms," Research in Labor Economics, Vol. 12, edited by Ronald G. Ehrenberg, (Grenwich, Conn.: JAI Press, 1991) pp. 1-39.

"Work for Americans with Disabilities," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, edited by Harold Orlans and June O'Neill (Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage Publications, Sept. 1992) pp. 159-174.

"On Working," Presidential Address for the Western Economics Association, Economic Inquiry, Vol. 31, No. 1 (January, 1993), pp. 1-28.

"The Consequences of Minimum Wage Legislation" Economic Affairs (Journal of the Institute of Economic Affairs, London)" 17 No. 2 (June 1997) 5-14.

"The Hearty and Cheery State" Contemporary Economic Policy 17 (January 1999) 138-146.

"Firm Size and Wages" (with Todd L. Idson) Chapter 33, Handbook of Labor Economics, Volume 3B, Amsterdam: Elsevier Science B.V.1999) 2165-2214.

Papers for Conference Volumes:

"The Costs and Implications of an All-Volunteer Force," The Draft, A Handbook of Facts and Alternatives, edited by Sol Tax, (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL: 1967), pp. 221-251.

"An Essay on Workmen's Compensation and Industrial Safety," in Supplemental Studies for the NCSWCL, Vol. I, pp. 41-106, 1973.

"The Fixed Employment Costs of Specialized Labor," in The Measurement of Labor Costs, edited by Jack E. Triplett, Conference on “Research in Income and Wealth, Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol. 48, 1983, pp. 63-116, (University of Chicago Press for the National Bureau of Economic Research).

"Productivity in the Distributive Trades: The Shopper and Economies of Massed Reserves" in Output Measurement in the Service Sectors edited by Zvi Griliches (Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press 1992) pp. 161-191.

"The Historical Perspectives on the All-Volunteer Force: The Rochester Connection" in Professionals on the Front Line: Two decades of the All-Volunteer Force, ed. J. Eric Fredland, Curtis Gilroy, Roger D. Little, and W.S. Sellman, (Washington and London: Brassey's, 1996) 37-54.

"Welfare Implications of Invention" in The Economics of New Goods, edited by Timothy F. Bresnahan and Robert J. Gordon, (Chicago, Il: The University of Chicago Press, 1997) pp 109-141.

"Three Paths from Disability to Poverty," Technical Analysis Paper No. 57, U.S. Department of Labor, October 1978.

"Fixed Factors," New Palgrave, 1987, pp. 384-385.

"The Indirect Effects of Technology on Retail Trade," in The Impact of Technological Change on Employment and Economic Growth, ed. Richard J. Cyert and David P. Mowery, (Ballinger Publishing, Cambridge, MA: 1988) pp. 329-375.