Ruth Leger Sivard | economist, 99
Ruth Leger Sivard, an internationally known economist who sought to demonstrate the cost of militarism by compiling and comparing statistics on global spending for soldiers and doctors, defense and literacy, as well as other measures of national priorities, died Aug. 21 at her home in Washington. She was 99.
Ruth Leger Sivard, an internationally known economist who sought to demonstrate the cost of militarism by compiling and comparing statistics on global spending for soldiers and doctors, defense and literacy, as well as other measures of national priorities, died Aug. 21 at her home in Washington. She was 99.
The cause was complications from Alzheimer's disease, said her daughter, Susan Sivard.
First as a government analyst and later as an independent researcher and publisher, Ms. Sivard became a foremost authority on how the United States and other nations allocate their resources, great or small, among defense and other societal needs.
She conducted her early comparative studies of military and social spending in the 1960s at the federal Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, where she rose to chief of the economics division.
- Washington Post