[4] Paul Samuelson named Viner (along with Harry Gunnison Brown, Allyn Abbott Young, Henry Ludwell Moore, Frank Knight, Wesley Clair Mitchell, and Henry Schultz) as one of the several "American saints in economics" born after 1860.

At various times, Viner also taught at Stanford and Yale Universities and twice went to the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.

Viner played a role in government, most notably as an advisor to Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. during the administration of Franklin Roosevelt.

Known for his economic modeling of the firm, including the long- and the short-run cost curves, his work is still used today.

His work, Studies in the Theory of International Trade (1937), discusses the history of economic thought and is a historical source for the Bullionist controversy in 19th-century Britain.