James Patrick Quirk (November 27, 1926 – June 4, 2020) was a Caltech professor of economics.
Quirk attended Marquette University in 1944-1945 towards a degree in civil engineering, he changed to economics 1946 while attending University of Minnesota going on to obtain a BBA in (economics) in 1948, a MA (economics) 1949 and a Ph.D. (economics)in 1959 from University of Minnesota. Between 1944 and 1946 he served in the U.S. Navy. He taught at St. Mary's University, San Antonio, Texas (1949–1951), then worked as an economist for the US government (Bureau of the Census, Washington, D.C., 1951–52, U. S. Dept. of Commerce 1952–53. After working as an economist for Pillsbury Co. and for Northwestern Bell, both in Minneapolis, he taught at Purdue University 1958–1965. In 1966 he became professor of economics at the University of Kansas. Between 1971 and 1987 he was professor of economics at Caltech, in addition to being a visiting professor at the University of Wyoming, Montana State University and University of Mississippi. He continued to teach part-time after retirement, and was a consultant, at various times to the California Hospital Association, the World Hockey Association, the Alan Cranston senatorial campaign, the U. S. Department of Justice, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and others.
He also had a love for jazz and played the cornet with several different jazz bands, Cornet player with Salty Dogs Jazz Band, "On the River", CUCA Records, 1967 and leader and cornet player, Dungeness Traditional Jazz Band, Sequim, Washington, 2002–2013.
Books He was the author of several books: Quirk, James P., Study Guide, Principles of Economics I, General Extension Division, University of Minnesota, 1957. Quirk, James P., and Rubin Saposnik. Introduction to General Equilibrium Theory and Welfare Economics, McGraw Hill Economics Handbook Series, 1969; Japanese translation, 1972, Spanish translation, 1972; French translation, 1980. Quirk, James P., and Arvid Zarley, Papers in Quantitative Economics, University of Kansas Press, 1969; paper back edition, 1970. Quirk, James P., Intermediate Microeconomics, Science Research Associates/Macmillan; first edition, 1976; Spanish translation 1979; Chinese translation, 1980; second edition, 1982; third Edition, 1987; Japanese translation, 1989. Quirk, James P., Mathematical Notes to Intermediate Microeconomics; Science Research Associates; paper back, 1976. Quirk, James P., Coal Models and Their Uses in Government Planning; (Katsuaki Terasawa and David Whipple, editors), Praeger Press, 1980. Quirk, James P., Essays in Contemporary Fields in Economics, (George Horwich, editor), Purdue University Press, 1981. Quirk, James P., and Duncan McDougall, Economics, Science Research Associates, 1981. Quirk, James P., Minnesota Football: The Golden Years, 1932-1941, privately printed, 1984. Quirk, James P., and Rodney Fort, Paydirt: The Business of Pro Team Sports; Princeton University Press, 1993. According to WorldCat, the book is in 961 libraries, and was the Runner-up for the 1993 Choice Magazine Outstanding Reference/Academic Book Award. Quirk, James P., and Rodney Fort, Hardball, Princeton University Press, 1999. Quirk, James P., and Douglas Hale, George Lady, and John Maybee, Nonparametric Comparative Statics and Stability, Princeton University Press, 1999. Quirk, James P., The Ultimate Guide to College Football, University of Illinois Press, 2003. Quirk, James P., and Quentin Quirk, College Football Game Scores, 1869-2006, CD Rom; James and Quentin Quirk publishers.
Academic papers He is the author of several papers:Caltech papers from 1978-2013 According to Google Scholar, his most cited article, JP Quirk, R Saposnik "Admissibility and measurable utility functions" The Review of Economic Studies 29.2 (1962): 140–146., has received 529 citations. Quirk, James P., "Preliminary Mathematic Model For Business Strategy Game", Pillsbury Mills, Inc., 1957 Letter to Joseph Bradley Pillsbury about the game developed, "A Description of The Game Model" Experimental Design and Mathematical Research, Pillsbury Mills, Inc., September 29, 1958. Letter from Dr. Britt school of Business Northwestern University to Pillsbury, Corp. about publishing, "Mathematical Models of Market Simulation: An example" in Journal Of Marketing, 1959. Quirk, James P., and Thomas F. Dernburg, " Per Capita Output and Technological Progress", Institute For Quantitative Research in Economics and Management, Issue Paper No. 1, 1960. Quirk, James P., "Summary:Default Risk and the Loan Market", Journal of Finance, vol. 15, no. 4, 1960. Quirk, James P., "The Capital Structure of Firms and the Risk of Failure", International Economic Review, Vol. 2, no. 2, May, 1961. Quirk, James P., and Rubin Saposnik, "Admissibility and Measurable Utility Functions", Review of Economic Studies, vol. 31, no. 1, 1962. Quirk, James P., Book review: Harry Markowitz, Portfolio Selection, Journal of Political Economy, vol. 70, no. 2, 1963. Quirk, James P., and James McRandle, "Summary: An Interpretation of the German Risk Fleet", Econometrica, vol. 3, no. 2, 1963. Quirk, James P., and Richard Ruppert, "Qualitative Economics and the Stability of Equilibrium", Review of Economic Studies, vol. 34, no. 3, 1965. Quirk, James P., Book review: David Huang, "Introduction to the Use of Mathematics in Economic Analysis", American Statistical Association Journal, 387-388, 1965. Quirk, James P., and James McRandle, "An Interpretation of the German Risk Fleet", in Papers in Economic History (Lance Davis and J. R.T. Hughes, editors), 1966. Quirk, James P., Lowell Bassett, and Hamid Habibagahi, "Qualitative Economics and Morishima Matrices", ''Econometrica, vol. 35, no. 2, April, 1965. Quirk, James P., and Rubin Saposnik, "Homogeneous Production Functions and Convexity of the Production Possibility Set", Metroeconomica, vol. 18, no. 3, 1966. Quirk, James P., and Lowell Bassett and John Maybee, "Qualitative Economics and the Scope of the Correspondence Principle", Econometrica, vol. 36, no. 3–4, July–October, 1968. Quirk, James P., "The Correspondence Principle: A Macroeconomic Application", International Economic Review, vol. 9, no. 3, October, 1968. Quirk, James P., and Richard Ruppert, "Maximization and the Qualitative Calculus", in Papers in Quantitative Economics (James Quirk and Arvid Zarley, editors), University of Kansas Press, 1968. Quirk, James P., and Arvid Zarley, "Policies to Attain External and Internal Balance: A Reappraisal", in Papers in Quantitative Economics (James Quirk and Arvid Zarley, editors), University of Kansas Press, 1968. Quirk, James P., Book review: Robert Kuenne, Microeconomic Theory of the Market Mechanism: A General Equilibrium Approach, in The Journal of Business, vol. 41, no. 3, 1968. Quirk, James P., and John Maybee, "Qualitative Problems in Matrix Theory", SIAM Review, vol. 11, no. 21, 1969. Quirk, James P., "Comparative Statics under Walras’ Law: The Case of Strong Dependence", Review of Economic Studies, vol. 38, no. 1, 1969. Quirk, James P., and Vernon Smith), "Dynamic Economic Models of Fishing", in H.R. McMillan Lectures in Commercial Fishing, University of British Columbia Press, 1970. Quirk, James P., "Complementarity and the Stability of the Competitive Equilibrium", American Economic Review, vol. 60, no. 2, June, 1970. Quirk, James P., "Competitive Equilibrium: A Qualitative Analysis" in Risk Programming and Economic Theory (John Chipman, editor), Springer-Verlag, 1970. Quirk, James P., "The Hospital As An Economic Institution", 1970. Quirk, James P., "Economics 203- Growth Theory", 1970. Quirk, James P., and Mohamed El Hodiri, "An Economic Model of a Professional Sports League", Journal of Political Economy, vol. 79, no. 6, November–December 1971. Quirk, James P., Book review: Trout Rader, Theory of General Economic Equilibrium, American Economic Review, 1973. Quirk, James P., "An Analysis of Team Movements in Professional Sports", Journal of Law and Contemporary Problems, vol. 38, no. 1, 1973-74. Quirk, James P., and Hamid Habibagahi, "Hicksian Stability and Walras’ Law", Review of Economic Studies, vol. 40, no. 2, 1973. Quirk, James P., "Employee Fringe Benefits- Faculty Caltech", California Institute of Technology, June 5, 1973. Quirk, James P., "Statement: The measure of a value asset in competitive market", Paper used to testify in court for Seattle Basketball team, 1973. Quirk, James P., and Mohamed El Hodiri, "The Economic Theory of a Professional Sports League", in Government and the Sports Business (Roger Noll, editor), Brookings, 1974. Quirk, James P., and David Montgomery, "The Role of Mathematics in Economic Theory", SIAM News, vol. 7, no. 6, 1974. Quirk, James P., Book review: Michio Morishima, Theory of Demand, in Journal of Economic Literature, 97-98, 1974. Quirk, James P., "A Class of Generalized Metzlerian Matrices", in Trade, Stability and Macroeconomics, Horwich and Paul Samuelson, editors, New York and London: Academic Press, 1974. Quirk, James P., and W. David Montgomery, "Factor Bias and Innovations: A Microeconomic Approach", Working Paper 38 has been published in Government Policies and Technological Innovation, National Technical Information Service. National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C. 20550. Vol. III, State-of-the-Art Surveys, PB244573. March 1974. Quirk, James P., and Mohamed El-Hodiri, "On Comparative Dynamics", Nov 1974. Quirk, James P., and W. David Montgomery, "The Market for Innovations", Social Science Working Paper Number 60, California Institute of Technology, October 1974. Quirk, James P., and Mohamed El Hordiri, "Stadium Capacities and Attendance in Professional Sports", in Management Science and Its Applications (Shaul Ladany, editor), North Holland, 1975. Quirk, James P., and Lance Davis), "Tax Writeoffs and the Value of Sports Teams", in Management Science and Its Applications (Shaul Ladany, editor), North Holland, 1975. Quirk, James P., " From earlier work by Sonnenschein, Debreu, and others", 1975. Quirk, James P., and Lance Davis, "The Ownership and Valuation Of Professional Sports Franchise", April 1975. Quirk, James P., and David Montgomery, "Rate of Return Regulation and Factor Bias in Innovations", 1976. Quirk, James P., and Stuart Burness, "Optimal Water Storage Policy With Applications To The Colorado River", Paper presented at AEA meeting New York, Dec 1977. Quirk, James P., and Stuart Burness, "Colorado River Project: Phase I: Water Rights And Allocations", Dec 1977. Quirk, James P., "Water Policy and Water Pricing in Reclamation Projects: The issue of Subsides", 1977. Quirk, James P., Manuscript review "Some Results in Comparative Statics", 1977. Quirk, James P., Comments on book, "Open Access and Extinction", 1977. Quirk, James P., and Katsuaki Teraswawa, "Review of the Nuclear Regulation Process", JPL report to the California Energy Commission, 1977. Quirk, James P., and David Montgomery, "Cost Escalation in Nuclear Power", in Perspectives in Energy, (L. Ruedisile and M. Firebaugh, editors), Oxford University Press, 1978. Quirk, James P., "The Simple Economics of Water", Engineering and Science, October 1978. Quirk, James P., and Roger G. Noll, and Joel A. Balbien, "Economic Policy of Boxing, Wrestling, and Karate: a Data Management System for California State Athletic Commission" 1978. Quirk, James P., Review Paper Terry Anderson- economic historian, Montana State University, July 26, 1978. Quirk, James P., Review of Report on "Venture Capital Investment", National Science Foundation study by Dr Willard Carleton, Dec 6, 1978. Quirk, James P., and H Stuart Burness, "Capital Gains and the Economic Theory of Corporate Finance", California Institute of Technology, Social Science Working Paper 232, September, 1978. Quirk, James P., and H. Stuart Burness, "Appropriative Water Rights and the Efficient Allocation of Resources", American Economic Review, vol. 69, no. 1, March, 1979.