Ruth Louisa Cohen, CBE (10 November 1906 – 27 July 1991) was a British economist, who served as Principal of Newnham College of the University of Cambridge from 1954 to 1972.
On her return, she worked at the Agricultural Economic Research Institute of the University of Oxford, where she remained until 1939.
Shortly after Cohen's return she was called to London for war service at the Ministry of Food and then at the Board of Trade.
[3][4] After her retirement, from 1973 to 1987, she served as a Labour Councillor for Newnham Ward on Cambridge City Council, chairing the Finance Committee and being active on the Development Control Sub-committee.
[1][3][4] Within economics, in addition to her own published output (see below), Phyllis Deane argues that her major contribution may well have been her revelation of the fatal flaw (or from another perspective, awkward anomaly) in neoclassical capital theory.