Max O. Lorenz

Who was Max O. Lorenz?

Max Otto Lorenz was an American economist who developed the Lorenz curve in 1905 to describe income inequalities. He published this paper when he was a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His doctorate was on 'The Economic Theory of Railroad Rates' and made no reference to perhaps his most famous paper.

He was active in both publishing and teaching and was at various times employed by the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Bureau of Railway Economics, the U.S. Bureau of Statistics and the U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission.

He was married to his wife Nellie, and he fathered 3 sons: Fred, Roger, and Julian Lorenz.

The term Lorenz curve seems first to have been used in 1912 in a textbook The Elements of Statistical Method.