Part 1 - The Institute Libraries - Institute for Advanced Study

esult of the conference I undertook to act as chairman of
a committee of the National Bursu of Economic Research to
drav -up such a program...
Under the leadership of Joseph Willitts, the program recorn-
rended by the cmittee vas adopted by the National Bureau
of Economic Research and large grants of funds have been mde
for its support from private banking institutions and public
agencies as well as the Rockefeller Foundation ....76
After the Exploratory Cmittee completed its survey and recom-
mendations, Professor Riefler undertook to supervise some of the projects.
These differed materially from his own earlier recommendations, though
there seems to be little question that his nemorandums had an influence
on the organization of the Bureau's program in financial research.
Riefler supervised the exhaustive study of all corporate bonds issued
in the United States during the twentieth century; a study of ecployment
and unemployment, another of consMler credit. These might be described
as sore of the raw materials to be used in searching analyses of the
economic phenomena he had wanted to investigate. They were highly
specialized and uncoordinated; hardly the kind of investigations vhich
sophisticated economists like Stevart and himself would vant to engage
in. This is not to say they vere not useful, hovever, for they vere,
and the Bureau continued for a couple of decades to perform similar
studies. Dr. Riefler devoted himself to the vork, and demonstrated
that he vas a fine guide and mentor to young post-doctoral economists,
helping them to formulate their problems, and supervisingthe prepara-
tion of their results.
But his own circumstances vere unenviable. Re spent half of
each veek at Hillside, an estate on the Hudson vhere the vork vent for-
ward. He vas not therefore the economist in residence, vhom other