Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates
American economic consulting organization
Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates, Inc (WEFA Inc) was an economics forecasting and consulting organization founded by Nobel Prize winner Lawrence Klein.
WEFA Inc was a spinoff of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where Klein taught. WEFA Inc traced an interesting path (see below for full details) from its predecessor in 1961 (the Economic Research Unit, discussed below), its initial launch in 1969 (as Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates Inc), to its ultimate merger with DRI (formerly Data Resources Inc.) forming Global Insight in 2001, and subsequent to that, Global Insight's acquisition in 2008 by IHS Inc.
Origins
Incorporated in 1969 by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania as a "not for profit" organization, WEFA Inc was an outgrowth of the Economics Research Unit (ERU) located in the economics department of the University of Pennsylvania. The ERU, a research unit devoted to graduate economics education, was originally sponsored in 1961 by grants from five US corporations including, IBM, Bethlehem Steel, John Deere, Exxon and Sunoco.
Among other things, the ERU was originally charged with the maintenance and use of the Wharton Quarterly Model [WQM] and the Wharton Index of Capacity Utilization. Between 1961 and 1969 the number of sponsors increased to the point where a more efficient organization was needed [WEFA Inc] to manage the many projects that grew out of the operation of the Wharton Quarterly Model.
Leadership
In June 1969, when WEFA Inc was incorporated, Lawrence R. Klein was appointed board chairman, Michael D. McCarthy was appointed executive director, and the then Director of the ERU, F. G. Adams, was appointed secretary-treasurer. Other members of the Board were: The Dean of the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania, ex officio, The Chairman of the Department of Economics of the University of Pennsylvania, ex officio, Paul F. Miller, (Board of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania), Michael K. Evans (University of Pennsylvania, economics department), Paul Taubman (University of Pennsylvania, economics department), and Richard J. Kruizenga,(Chief Economist and Manager, Corporate and Environmental Economics, Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey).
“Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates” enters the record as american economic consulting organization. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Wharton, Econometric and Forecasting can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Wharton, Econometric and Forecasting provides the most credible route into that argument.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7990709. VIAF identifies the subject as 135147153. The Library of Congress control number is n78068468. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1961, 1969, 2001 and 2008.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates primary sources, Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates archive and Wharton research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates”?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.