Subject: Kenneth L. Sokoloff Memorial Fund
From: Dora L. Costa (costa@mit.edu)
Date: Wed May 23 2007 - 12:23:30 EDT
Dear friends,
Some of you have asked about letters of condolence and others
about memorial funds. If you wish to send Ken's father a
condolence letter please send to
Dr. Louis Sokoloff
707 Hermleigh Rd.
Silver Spring, Maryland 20902
Donations in his memory may be made to the Kenneth L. Sokoloff Memorial
Fund at the Economic History Association, Department of Economics, 500 El
Camino Real, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA 95053-0385, to provide
Sokoloff fellowships for the support of young scholars.
The following obituary was written by Eric Zolt, Steve Haber,
and others:
Ken Sokoloff, age 54, Professor of Economics at the University of
California, Los Angeles passed away on May 21, 2007. The cause was cancer.
Sokoloff was a renowned economic historian whose work had important
implications for economic development. His research on the United States
focused on the history of productivity growth and technological change.
One of his principal findings was the amazing degree to which the
well-designed patent system of the early nineteenth century U.S. inspired
common people to be active inventors and patent holders. His work on the
industrial development of follower economies such as South Korea, Taiwan,
and Mexico, punctured the notion that government policy played a major role
in spurring productivity growth. In recent years, Sokoloff increasingly
focused on the comparative economic history of Latin America and the United
States. In a series of highly influential articles he, along with various
co-authors, showed how factors such as climate and soils played a
fundamental role in shaping the economic and political institutions adopted
by early settlers and how those initial institutions then persisted to the
present day. Sokoloff’s articles are standard reading in graduate
curricula in economic history, development economics, and political
science. Indeed, the ramifications of his work extended well beyond
academia, and have shaped the way that economists at multilateral aid
organizations, such as the World Bank, think about reforming economic
institutions that retard growth.
Sokoloff received the B.A. degree from the University of Pennsylvania in
1974. He went on to graduate school at Harvard, from which he received the
Ph.D. in 1982. He joined the UCLA faculty in 1980. In addition to his
appointment at UCLA, Sokoloff held visiting appointments at Oxford
University, École des Hautes Études, the California Institute of
Technology, Tel Aviv University, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the
Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences. His accomplishments
were recognized by being named a Research Associate of the National Bureau
of Economic Research and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences.
He is survived by his father, Dr. Louis Sokoloff and his sister, Ann, and
many colleagues, friends and former students. A memorial service will be
held at the Chapel at Westwood Village Memorial Park, 1218 Glendon Ave., at
3:00 on Wednesday, May 23. Donations in his memory may be made to the
Kenneth L. Sokoloff Memorial Fund at the Economic History Association,
Department of Economics, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara University, Santa
Clara, CA 95053-0385, to provide Sokoloff fellowships for the support of
young scholars.
