Berkeley alumnus Erik Thorbecke, professor in the Economics Department at Cornell University, died on April 26, 2026, at his beloved homestead ranch in Fort Bragg, California. He was 96 years old. Erik had a PhD in economics from UC Berkeley, where he was a contemporary of the late ARE Professor Irma Adelman and James Boles. He developed a career in development economics, focusing in particular on growth models and the measurement of poverty and inequality. His name was famously associated with the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke Poverty Index that stresses not only the prevalence but also the depth of poverty. He contributed to the development of social accounting matrices and computable general equilibrium models. He also made important contributions to the role of agriculture in development and of nutrition in wellbeing. He worked extensively in Peru when a faculty member at Iowa State University, and subsequently in Sub-Saharan Africa in association with UNU-WIDER (United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research) and AERC (African Economic Research Council) while at Cornell University. His work is notable for the combination of rigorous empirical measurement and deep concern for human welfare.
In the photograph, Erik Thorbecke is next to two giants, the thousand-year-old tree grove and Professor Elisabeth "Betty" Sadoulet, side by side.