Alvin H. Hansen was a student of business cycles throughout
his professional life, building his broad view of them on theoretical,
statistical, structural and historical studies. He applied
his findings to policy with such effect that "no American economist
was more important for the historic redirection of United States
macroeconomic policy from 1935 to 1965." [Tobin (1976) 32] Trained
at the University of Wisconsin, he spent the bulk of his professional
life at the Universities of Minnesota and Harvard, where he
achieved his greatest fame.