Professor Heston was a founding member of the research team, alongside Professors Irving Kravis and Robert Summers, at the University of Pennsylvania which established the International Comparison Project in 1968, in collaboration with the United Nations Statistics Division. The team’s pioneering efforts led to the establishment of the International Comparison Program (ICP), which now boasts a global coverage of 176 participating economies across the world. He was also instrumental in establishing the Penn World Table (PWT), which provides panel data on relative levels of income, output, input, and productivity covering 183 countries over the period 1950-2019.
Alan’s captivating 2017 memoir, detailing his work on both the ICP and PWT reveals his unwavering passion for establishing meaningful cross-country comparisons of economic volume using the concept of purchasing power parities (PPPs). His intuitive understanding of the issues to be considered and the challenges to be overcome led to a robust methodological foundation for the Program, and he and his colleagues continued to refine and improve the processes and techniques employed as the number of countries involved in successive comparisons increased. Alan’s extensive knowledge and understanding of PPPs and comparative global economic measurement continued to contribute to the development of the ICP with his appointment as Chair of the Program’s Technical Advisory Group for the ICP 2005 cycle, and he continued as a member of both the Group and a number of research-focused Task Forces advising the ICP, including the most recent ICP 2021 cycle, until his passing.
In his memoir, Alan noted his relationship with the ICP was approaching 50 years and attributed this longevity to him continuing to find the Program intellectually interesting and his colleagues congenial. Many involved in the ICP would attribute this congeniality to Alan himself – a kind and supportive mentor, always willing to help and explain to others complex concepts and provide innovative solutions. In typical fashion, Alan said the most gratifying part of the ICP was seeing a new generation of statisticians and researchers take on the work of the Program with interest and enthusiasm: however, it is the global ICP family and the Program’s many beneficiaries and users that owe him a debt of gratitude for his bringing into being this essential tool for understanding the global economy and inequity around the world. We are committed to carrying on his legacy of a thoughtful and insightful approach to economic measurement.
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- Obituary on the Penn World Table website
- Tribute article about Alan in The Economist