Comments on: Gerald Scully R.I.P.

By: Dr. Stokes Taylor

Dr. Stokes Taylor — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 06:01:30 +0000

Patrick took us to lunch at Fishermans Table overlooking the T.asman Sea when Jerry arrived. Jerry owened the ranch next to DH Lawrence’s and I consulted in Taos at Sangre de Cristo seeing non-english speaking geriatric psychiatric patients thou by profession am a child psychiatrist.We had alot of fun;Jerry n I had 2 beers n Patrick 1, Jerry smoked 2 cuban cigars on our beach walk. We then went to Kapiti ice Cream up the coast which is marvelous and award winning. He promptly announced “i want the ice cream with the highest butterfat content”, turned to me and said ‘Stokes, when you stop, you die”. He was a great friend and a great Libertarian. Just wish I could have accecpted the many invitations to stay and play golf in conjunction with conferences near San Diego when he stopped coming to NZ. A friend to my economist sons and maverick lawyer Paul with whom I treated to a dozen fried bluff oysters and monteiths beer which he loved. NZ will miss his fun and piercing intellect.

By: Dr. Patrick Caragata

Dr. Patrick Caragata — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:53:40 +0000

I only learned of Jerry’s passing today (July 27, 2009) and find it hard to believe he is gone. He was a larger than life character with a wicked sense of politically incorrect humor, too often a scarce commodity these days. I first contacted Jerry in 1993 after reading his NCPA paper on the optimal size of government. I was working in New Zealand as Chief Tax Policy Adviser of the Inland Revenue Department. I had a mandate to write a report on the health of the tax system in NZ, a study of the economic and compliance consequences of taxation and decided I wanted to take an econometric approach to measuring the empirical effects of tax. I asked Jerry if he would be interested in working with us. He enthusiastically agreed and later helped recruit his friend, Professor Knox Lovell (U. Georgia at Athens). I also brought in Professor David Giles at the University of Victoria in Canada, and Professors Richard Bird and Jack Mintz at the University of Toronto, my alma mater. Jerry and Knox later helped to recruit Professor Irwin Diewert of the University of British Columbia, while Richard Bird helped us add Alan Auerbach (UC Berkley) and Sijbren Cnossen (University of Maastricht)who reviewed our work. This was a Tom Sawyer white picket fence exercise with only small amounts of money being paid. The attractions were the freedom to publish whatever we discovered, something I had written into my contract, the great adventure exploring some new frontiers and the comradeship on the journey. It was a powerful team of professionals who helped ensure the success of this unique undertaking, and despite being a strong individualist, Jerry fit in perfectly. Jerry regularly flew down to NZ and became instrumental in helping drive our 7 workshops over almost 4 years, 34 working papers, many articles and 3 books, including Taxation and the Limits of Government, which Jerry and I edited and published with Kluwer in 2000. The debate created by that work has lasted for years, and our two Kluwer/Springer books, including my own on the Report on the Health of the Tax System: The Economic and Compliance Consequences of Taxation) are still in print. In 1999,Jerry traveled twice to, and worked with Dr. Adolf Stroombergen and myself in, Denmark, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, helping the latter restructure its economy. The trip introduced us to whale blubber, puffin, pilot whales, the wonderful Faroese culture, and more hot-springs (Iceland) than we saw in Rotorua, NZ, one of Jerry favorite spots. I have some great pictures from the Faroes and Iceland if anyone is interested. During the months and years that I worked and traveled with Jerry I was deeply impressed with his brilliance, his scholarship and his incredible sense of humor. He was always a great intellectual companion and considerate friend. Too many stories to relate here. He always told me how much he loved his daughters despite his absences, and how proud he was of them. My friends, Rex Moore and Dr. Stokes Taylor and I were the ones that introduced Jerry to golf in New Zealand in 1994, which he took up with a passion in the last 15 years of life. He became a scratch golfer. I still play with a Ping set he sold me when he upgraded. And I am pleased to see that he was a stickler for golf rules in the US because with us in NZ he was always asking for mulligans. He was always determined to be the best at whatever he tried. Jerry’s work on labor economics, sports economics, freedom and growth, and the optimal level of tax and government will inspire many generations after him. He was an inspiration for us but he also learned from us. I am grateful we had a chance to meet and work together. He will be missed by all of us. He was a great man and a true libertarian.

Dr. Patrick Caragata
Founder and Executive Vice Chairman
Rapid Ratings International (New York)
residing in Brisbane, Australia

By: tom borcherding

tom borcherding — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:03:07 +0000

I just found the said news about Jerry Scully. It was hidden in my “spam” file.

Jerry was not spam, but muscle and sinew. He had a wry sense of humor and a mind that did not embrace the commonly held or banal. I hadn’t seen him for a few years, and I was mentioning him the other day to a grad student doing his thesis on hockey players’ salaries. So sadly I will have to tell this chap that trying to get hold of Jerry won’t be possible.

I hope in the Elysian Fields Jerry is giving it to all the statists and bores, while delighting those who love freedom and free minds.

RIP Jerry Scully.

Tom Borcherding
Claremont Graduate University

By: Deirdre Scully Grant

Deirdre Scully Grant — Thu, 21 May 2009 05:58:36 +0000

I received the news of my fathers death via a letter on May 14th. I only got to spend a very few early precious years with him but I lost him to his love and genius of economics. I am very pleased to see that he had a great many friends, I wish I could have met many of you. Some of my fondest memories were fighting some of his theories. His idea of babysitting me was leaving me at Ohio State and SMU in the computer room and in his library to read his books; The Journal of Economics. I was three year to seven years of age. He said “don’t worry it’ll sink in later”. It did, however he didn’t like being argued with. As regards to Milton Friedman; the one loophole I liked to exploit was “Dad..what about corruption?? It is an inherent flaw in the system”. Lord!! What did I know at 18!! And then Lehman Brothers failed and so on. Although I did not get to know my father well and I missed him everyday of my life; he gave me the idea to add psychology to my economic studies starting 25 years ago. I recently read a book called Animal Spirts by Shiller and Akerlof where the field of economics just might become receptive to behavioral economists but I remain dubious. In the meanwhile, I use the combination to do well in the marketplace! If there was any one who was on the trip to Iran with us in the 70’s I’d love to here from you and your stories. Deirdre Scully Grant

By: The Passing of a Pioneer in Sports Economics « The Wages of Wins Journal

The Passing of a Pioneer in Sports Economics « The Wages of Wins Journal — Tue, 19 May 2009 18:17:42 +0000

[...] is David Henderson’s write-up at the Library of Economics and Liberty. Here is a piece by John Goodman. Here is a piece at Marginal Revolution. Here is Scully’s write up on the economics and [...]

By: David J Farr

David J Farr — Sat, 16 May 2009 16:54:53 +0000

I enjoyed playing golf with Jerry. It was fun talking economics with him and getting his view on our current challenges. Very inciteful and intelligent. Also a good golfer. He was very particular about the etiquitte of golf and the skills required. I learned a lot of both from him in the past year. Very sorry to hear of his passing and would with his family my prayerful regards. Dave Farr

By: Robert Brown

Robert Brown — Thu, 14 May 2009 03:42:25 +0000

I met Gerry on the golf course. We passed many hours trying to make sense of the little round ball. Many laughs. I would goad Gerry to send me his latest writing and always learned from them. We had been talking about a new research project regarding Argentina’s demise under Peron and any parallels to the current administration. Would have been an interesting piece. We miss his comradship on the course.

By: Carl-Johan Westholm

Carl-Johan Westholm — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:06:38 +0000

John,
Thanks for the sad info. You wrote a kind, memorable piece about this memorable man.

By: Daniel Slottje

Daniel Slottje — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:58:31 +0000

Dear Mr. Weber:

I am writing you regarding the passing of Professor Gerald Scully. Professor Scully was a unique individual and a maverick. As an example, he was a truly classical libertarian who adored the NY Times. His work in the field of applied economics has influenced generations in at least three distinct fields. Thousands upon thousands of students suffered through microeconomics principle classes where they are forced to learn about “marginal productivity” and the “marginal productivity of labor.” Jerry was the first economist to understand that there is real world data, where the concept could be operationalized, in baseball!! Jerry’s work was published in the American Economic Review and labor economists from that day forward were grateful and grasped Jerry’s creativity, sports data gives us real world data on quantifying productivity, and the field of sports economics married to labor economics has thrived ever since. When the baseball strikes occurred, Ted Kopel talked to Jerry, his work on the business of baseball (published by the University of Chicago Press) remains a classic.

Professor Scully did equally path breaking work in the field of measuring economic liberty. Milton Friedman long ago noted the relationship between economic freedom and political freedom, but once again, Jerry was the first to actually quantify what the notion meant and then ranked countries to see how they stacked up. His work has been used by economists the world over including those at the World Bank and United Nations.

Finally, Jerry’s work on the size of government and the implications of the scope of government for economic growth is an area that continues to be timely and important as we head to unprecedented unchartered waters on this topic. Jerry understood that there are costs and benefits to government growth and all these costs should be carefully considered when opening up the public checkbook. Jerry’s work was published in the best journals in his field, including the Journal of Political Economy and Public Choice.

The world has lost a brilliant thinker, a lovely man (he mellowed a lot over the years) and a significant contributor to the dismal science. I hope the NY Times will make note of his passing.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Sincerely,

Daniel Slottje
Professor of Economics, SMU
Dallas, TX

By: Carter Murphy

Carter Murphy — Fri, 08 May 2009 04:45:46 +0000

John,
Thanks for your blog in memoriam to Gerry Scully. As you will remember, Gerry came to the economics department at SMU in the mid- to late-1960s and stayed four or five years before leaving to sail the Carribbean. He was researching Sports Economics at that time and was an irrepressible catalyst for ideas throughout the department. He had a serious accident while driving a sports car, but this didn’t long prevent him from teaching his classes and good naturedly provoking his colleagues. I admired him greatly in those years, for his brilliant mind and his what-the-hell approach to life, and was deeply disappointed when he insisted on leaving academia and going to sea in his sailboat.
I am saddened by news of his death. A little bit of the best of me dies with him.

Carter Murphy