Hazel Kyrk

Hazel Kyrk (1886–1957) was an American economist and pioneer of consumer economics.

Early life and education

Hazel Kyrk was born in 1886 in Ashley, Ohio and was the only child of Elmer Kyrk, a drayman, and Jane Kyrk, a homemaker.

Before entering Wesleyan University, Kyrk worked as a teacher in schools for three years. She attended Ohio Wesleyan University from 1904 to 1906. To supplement her father's meager income she worked as a housekeeper to the economics professor Leon Carroll Marshall while attending the university. The University of Chicago had become a hotbed for social science and Marshall moved there in 1906. Kyrk moved as well to continue her studies at university. In 1910 she earned a Ph.B. in economics.

With a dissertation supervised by James A. Field, Kyrk earned her economics Ph.D. in 1920. Kyrk's dissertation was published 1923 under the title A Theory of Consumption. Kyrk fused the emerging field of social psychology with economics and analyzed the impact of regulated consumption in wartime England. A Theory of Consumption has become of classic interpretation of the social basis of consumer behavior.

In 1943 Kyrk was appointed as chair of the Consumer Advisory Committee to the Office of Price Administration. She argued for better standards in consumer goods and urged a slower rate of price decontrol during World War II. Kyrk argued that specialized machinery and labor that could be utilized to full capacity under centralized management would lead to gradual shift away from household production. She maintained that household production was the result of societal norms and not clearly distinguishable from consumption. The production of food or entertainment in a household took place so "that we may live as we desire".

Works A Theory of Consumption (1923) The Economic Problems of the Family (1929) The Consumer and the Marketing System (1934) Family Housing and Facilities (1940) Family Expenditures for Housing and Household Operation (1941) The Family in the American Economy (1953)

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