Richard Stone

Richard Stone

Sir John Richard Nicholas Stone (30 August 1913 – 6 December 1991) was an eminent British economist who in 1984 received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for developing an accounting model that could be used to track economic activities on a national and, later, an international scale. While he was not the first economist to work in this field, he was the first to do so with double entry accounting. Double entry accounting basically states that every income item on one side of the balance sheet must be met by an expenditure item on the opposite side of the accounting sheet therefore creating a system of balance. This double entry system is the basis of nearly all modern accounting today. This allowed for a reliable way of tracking trade and wealth transfer on a global scale. He is sometimes known as the 'father of national income accounting', and is the author of studies of consumer demand statistics and demand modeling, economic growth, and input-output. During his acceptance speech Stone mentioned François Quesnay as well as the Tableau économique. Stone stated that it was one of the very first works in economics to examine various sectors on such a global level and how they are all interconnected. Stone was educated at Westminster School, Cambridge University (Caius and King's).