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The American economist and educator James Tobin, b. Champaign, Ill., Mar. 5, 1918, won the 1981 Nobel Prize for economics for his studies of investor, consumer, and corporate behavior in the financial world. Tobin was educated at Harvard University and taught there until 1950. Since then he has taught at Yale, where he has been professor emeritus since 1988. Tobin was a member of President John F. Kennedy's Council of Economic Advisers in 1961-62. Influenced by John Maynard Keynes, Tobin believes that the economy cannot be controlled simply by manipulating money supplies; inflation, unemployment, and similar factors must also be taken into account. His research has shed light on how investors select items for investment portfolios and on how corporations handle capital investment programs. Tobin's numerous books include The New Economics One Decade Later (1974), Essays in Economics--Theory and Practice (1982), and Politics for Prosperity (1987).