Arthur Melvin Okun

Arthur Melvin "Art" Okun (November 28, 1928 – March 23, 1980) was an American economist. He served as the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers between 1968 and 1969. Before serving on the C.E.A., he was a professor at Yale University and, afterwards, was a fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. In 1968 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.[1]

Art Okun
7th Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers
In office February 15, 1968 – January 20, 1969
President	Lyndon Johnson
Preceded by	Gardner Ackley
Succeeded by	Paul McCracken
Personal details
Born	(1928-11-28)November 28, 1928 Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	March 23, 1980(1980-03-23) (aged 51) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Education	Columbia University (BA, MA, PhD)
Academic career
Institution	Yale University
Field	Macroeconomics
School or tradition	Neo-Keynesian economics
Doctoral advisor	Arthur F. Burns
Influences	John Maynard Keynes
Contributions	Okun's law Misery index

Okun is known in particular for promulgating Okun's law, an observed relationship that states that for every 1% increase in the unemployment rate, a country's GDP will be roughly an additional 2% lower than its potential GDP. He is also known as the creator of the misery index and the analogy of the deadweight loss of taxation with a leaky bucket.[2] He died on March 23, 1980 of a heart attack. [3]