Kenneth Sokoloff, a professor in the UCLA Department of Economics, died Monday at the age of 54. Sokoloff, who joined the UCLA faculty in 1980, specialized in the economic history of North America.
Naomi Lamoreaux, also a professor in the economics department and a close friend of Sokoloff, said he died because of complications from liver cancer.
“Ken was an incredibly generous and spirited man who had the ability to connect with people on a depth that few faculty members can do,” Lamoreaux said.
She added that Sokoloff built more of a family with his graduate students than “your normal academic community.”
Lamoreaux said she and Sokoloff had been collaborating on a book, which she plans to finish.
Eric Zolt, a professor at the UCLA School of Law and another close friend, said Sokoloff had recently received a courtesy joint appointment to the law school.
“As a coauthor with him on a study determining inequality and taxation across countries, working with (Sokoloff) was wonderful. He had a remarkable enthusiasm and curiosity and was a wonderfully kind individual,” Zolt said.
Since being at UCLA, Sokoloff had held visiting appointments at universities including Oxford and Stanford. He also collaborated on research papers with professors across the nation. Claudia Goldin, an economics professor at Harvard University who worked closely with Sokoloff, said he “gave so much of himself” to his friends, colleagues and students.
“He must have had more hours per day than any of us,” Goldin said.
Sokoloff received much recognition for his work in the field of economics. He was a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also won the Arthur H. Cole Prize for best article in the Journal of Economic History, where he was a member of the editorial board.
In the classroom, Sokoloff mentored a number of graduate students, some of who are now professors today.
John Majewski, a professor of history at UC Santa Barbara, said he worked extensively with Sokoloff in the field of early United States history when he was a graduate student.
“Ken was perhaps the best economic historian of his generation … (and) despite of all his well-deserved scholarly accolades, was one of the most humble persons that I have known, always willing to listen and guide his students,” Majewski said.
Stephen Haber, a professor of history and political science at Stanford, said Sokoloff shaped his approach to research and the choice of topics he has worked on for the past 25 years.
“He not only taught his students economic history, he taught them what it means to have the right academic values ““ and the importance of defending those values regardless of the personal cost that one might have to bear,” Haber said.
One of Sokoloff’s major accomplishments was pioneering research on the patent system. Through researching large samples of patent records, he found that the average American citizen in the 19th century was a patent holder, which led to considerable economic growth during that time period.
Sokoloff also extended his generosity to his research assistants, including Martine Mariotti, an economics doctoral candidate at UCLA.
“Even while he was so ill, he always made us feel as though our own concerns were of the utmost importance,” Mariotti said.
Haber said Sokoloff was always loved by his former students and their families.
“There was nothing that his former students would not do for him,” Haber said.