Ann Fetter Friedlaender

Ann Fetter Friedlaender was born in Philadelphia in 1938.[2] She graduated with a B.A. degree of economics in Radcliffe College in 1960, and married her husband Stephan Friedlaender (an architect) in December of the same year.[1][2] They had two sons, Lucas Ferdinand and Nathaniel Mark.[1][2] In 1964, she earned her Ph.D. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology—MIT, then went to Finland and served a year as a Fulbright lecturer.[2]

After Friedlaender went back to America, she went to teach at Boston College, as lecturer, assistant professor, and professor (1965-1974).[2][3] Between 1972-1973, Friedlaender became a visiting professor in the MIT Department of Economics, and in 1974 she became an appointed professor in the MIT Department of Economics and Civil Engineering, and started her remarkable career at MIT.[2] She was a named professor in 1987, the appointed chair of the Economics Department in 1983, and the dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences in 1984-1990, and presume the first women dean at the MIT. Friedlaender was also very active on positions out side of the campus, as a director of the Rand Corporation and of Conrail, a member of the American Economic Association (and being the executive committee for two years), the chair of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (1978-1980), and an associate editor of Transportation Science (for 14 years).[1][2][3][4]

In later life, Friedlaender was diagnosed with cancer, and died at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston on October 19, 1992.[5] Her family established a Professorship after her death.[2]

Friedlaender was a relatively productive scholar, that has published numbers of professional articles and influential books, and also several monographs. One of the most important publications she wrote was The Interstate Highway System, which quickly made her an authority in the field of transportation economics, at the age of only 27.

Friedlaender's later work on the public finance and regulations of public transportation system were quite fundamental on the relative fields, and her analysis were valued and considered in the future regulation and policy making.[2][3] Her use of econometric modelling on transport system was very inventory, which started a new sight on the field.

Friedlaender's work with Spady, Transport Regulation: Equity, Efficiency, and Competition in the Rail and Trucking Industries, raised a lot of attention along with significant policy implications.[2][3] Also Friedlaender was very invested on improving learning materials for students. Friedlaender joined with John F. Due as the second author and edited the fifth and later editions of Government Finance: Economics of the Public Sector in 1973, and helped to improve a classic textbook that published in seven editions from 1954-1981.[2]

Aside of being productive on the academic field, Friedlaender was a member of the American Economic Association, and the chair of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession, where she actively provide help and being committed to drive more women into graduate school.

• Fulbright lecturer, 1964-1965[2][6]
• Teaching at Boston College, 1965-1974[2][6][5]
• Professor at MIT, 1974-1992[2][6]
• Named Professor at MIT, 1987[2][6]
• Chair of the Economics Department, 1983[2][6]
• Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, 1984-1990[2][5]
• Chair of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession, 1978-1980[2]
• American Economic Association Executive Committee[2]
• American Economic Association Vice President, 1987[2]

• The Interstate Highway System: A Study in Public Investment. Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1965.
• The Dilemma of Freight Transportation Regulation. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1969.
• Government Finance: Economics of the Public Sector (with J.F. Due). 6th ed. Homewood, IL:R.D.Irwin, 1977.
• "A Derived Demand Function for Freight Transportation" (with R.H. Spady). Review of Economics and Statistics 62(3), August 1980:432-41.
• Freight Transport Regulation: Equity, Efficiency, and Competition in the Rail and Trucking Industries (with R.H. Spady). Cambridge, MA:MIT Press, 1981.
• "Rail Costs and Capital Adjustments in a Quest-Regulated Environment" (with E.R. Berndt et al.). Journal of Transport Economics and Policy 27(2), May 1993:131-52.
• "Costs, Technology, and Productivity in the U.S. Automobile Industry". The Bell Journal of Economics 14(1), February 1983:1-20.