Maxine Yaple Sweezy


Maxine Bernard Yaple Sweezy Woolston was an American economist. She is best known for her work The Structure of the Nazi Economy, which introduced the term reprivatization.

Life and career

Maxine Bernard Yaple was born on in Missouri. Raised in the Kansas City area, she attended Northeast [High School (Missouri)|Northeast High School]. She earned an A.B. and M.A. from Stanford University in 1934 and 1935 and a PhD from Radcliffe College in 1939.
She was one of six economists who published An Economic Program for American Democracy, which argued for a Keynesian approach of public investment and progressive taxation to spur consumption and stave off economic stagnation.
Her doctoral dissertation, Nazi Economic Policies, was the basis for her book The Structure of the Nazi Economy. Her examination of the Nazi economy was used by the US military to assist in selecting industrial bombing targets during World War II. During the war she worked for the Office of Price Administration and the Foreign Economic Administration.
She was a member of the Philadelphia [City Planning Commission] from 1945 to 1948 and later worked for them as a consultant. She held faculty positions at Tufts, Vassar, and Bryn Mawr.
Maxine Bernard Yaple Sweezy Woolston died on 29 April 2004 in Guilford, Connecticut.

Personal life

Yaple was married to economist Paul Sweezy and lawyer William Jenks Woolston.