Prague, Aug 1 (CTK) – Czech economist Jan Kmenta, Professor Emeritus of Economics and Statistics at the University of Michigan, USA, and Visiting Professor at Prague’s CERGE-EI institute, died in Prague on July 24 at the age of 88, Karolina Brizova, from CERGE-EI, told CTK yesterday.
Kmenta, member of the CERGE-EI executive and supervisory committee, was one of the most influential economists of Czech origin.
Prague-born Kmenta is the author of the Elements of Econometrics textbook that has been used at universities all over the world. A major part of his research focused on the econometric theory and application that he was developing for over 40 years.
“Jan was a devoted friend, an excellent colleague and a top economist, he was a role model for many of us. He has been connected with CERGE-EI since the very beginning and we will miss him very much,” economist Jan Svejnar, Kmenta’s long-term friend, said in a press release.
A number of prestigious scientific and statistical journals published Kmenta’s articles. He was also a co-editor of several books.
He was placed 40th among world economists in the number of quotations from 1971 to 1989 (Medoff 1989).
Kmenta worked at the Centre for Economic Research and Graduate Education of Charles University and the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CERGE-EI) from it establishment in 1991 until this summer.
Apart from lecturing of econometrics in 1992-1995 and working in the CERGE-EI institute, Kmenta was a mentor of dozens of post-graduate students. He also supported their research stays at the University of Michigan.
Kmenta left for Australia after the communist coup in Czechoslovakia in February 1948 at the age of 22.
In 1955, he completed his Bc studies of economics at the Sydney University and four years later, his MA studies at the prestigious Stanford University in the United States where he also received PhD in 1964.
After teaching in Australia, Stanford and at the University of Wisconsin, USA, Kmenta continued his academic career at the Michigan State University (MSU) in 1965-1973 and then at the University of Michigan for some 20 years.
“After the fall of communism, he often returned to Prague and he was in one of the first waves of intellectual aid to the country afflicted by 40 years of the communist ideology dominance,” the CERGE-EI Institute said.
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