Kenneth Parsons

Who was Kenneth Parsons?

Kenneth H. Parsons was a Professor of Agricultural economics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

He joined the faculty in 1937, received his Ph.D in 1940, and retired in 1974 after a distinguished career of teaching and research. From 1931-36, he worked in Washington DC with the Federal Farm Board, the Farm Credit Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. From 1940-70, Dr. Parsons worked with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the Marshall Plan, the Ford Foundation, and the U.S. Agency for International Development conducting research in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, with a special focus on land tenure and land reform and their economic implementations. As a UW–Madison student in 1929, Parsons was attracted by the ideas of institutional economist John R. Commons, and edited Commons’ The Economics of Collective Action published in 1950 by Macmillan after Commons died in 1945. Parsons wrote “The John R. Commons’ Point of View”, Journal of Land & Public Utility Economics, 1942.