Part 2 - The Institute Libraries - Institute for Advanced Study

of two years, the Director asked him what his intentions were, and
Riefler left it up to Oppenheimer. It was thus agreed that the economist
3 5
had resigned.
The iqortance and significance of Riefler's program of studies
in finance was made clear to Dr. Oppenheimer when in 1949 the economist
resigned as the Institute's nominee to the directors of the National Bureau
of Econoric Research. The Executive Director wrote as follows:
L&. IZieflerw2? active participation. ..in the work of the
Bureau has been a major influence in much of its work, es-
pecially in the field of finance. The leadership he gave
to the Financial Research Program and to the execution of
the many studies frm it to date stands out as an exceptional
contribution to econoaic research. 36
A further appraisal of the irportance of those studies in their
substa-ce and method was given in a repart of the Executive Dixector in
The program has borne fruit in a variety of ways: first
of all, in distinctive contributions to bas5 c knowledge., , .
Lchich/ Sas been and is being used increasingly in the
making of public and private policies, in legislation, in
jodicial decisions, in the operations sf financial tnstitutions,
and in the teaching of economics, banking, and ,
finance in universities and colleges throughout the United
States and abroad. Textbooks in money, banking and finance
published in the United States have drawn extensively on
the findings. Indeed, many that have been published since
the war are based so heavily on the Bureau's work that
they could not have been written without it.
The contributions, however, go beyond the additions to basic
knowledge. Usiversities and research groups have adopted the
Nztional Bureau1 s methods and techniques irL studying finance.
Public agencies have take: over and continued on a current
basis data that the Eureau began in its studies. Members
of the research staffs of banks and other financial insti-
tutions, of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System and of the Federal Reserve Banks, of banks in foreign
countries, and of many government and private agencies, hare
visited the Bureau and drawn upon the experience of its staff