Theodore William Schultz (/ʃʊlts/ SHUULTS; 30 April 1902 – 26 February 1998) was an American agricultural economist and chairman of the University of Chicago Department of Economics.

Theodore William Schultz was born on April 30, 1902, in a small town ten miles northwest of Badger, South Dakota, on a 560-acre farm.

He eventually enrolled in the Agriculture College at South Dakota State, in a three-year program that met for four months a year during the winter.

After being recognized for possessing great potential as a student, Schultz moved on to a bachelor's program, earning his degree in 1927 in agriculture and economics.

[2] He left Iowa State in the wake of the "oleomargarine controversy",[3] and he served as the chair of economics at the University of Chicago from 1946 to 1961.

Among the graduate students and faculty affiliated with the pair in the 1940s and 1950s were Clifford Hardin, Zvi Griliches, Marc Nerlove, and George S.

While he was chair of economics at Chicago he led research into why post-World War II Germany and Japan recovered, at almost miraculous speeds, from the widespread devastation.

One of his main contributions was later called Human Capital Theory, which he formulated with the help of Gary Becker and Jacob Mincer.

[9] Schultz coined this theory in his book titled Investment in Human Capital; however, he experienced negative feedback from other economists.

In order for many people to make a comfortable, livable wage, it could be argued today that a college degree is the best, most guaranteed step in such a direction.

Those who are first generation college students arguably have to invest far more time, money, and effort into higher education in order to receive even a somewhat similar payoff to those with nepotism connections and social qualities perceived as more high-quality.

He advocates for humans to invest in their health, internal migration, and on-the-job training; however, he focuses on encouraging individuals to better their education in order to increase their level of productivity.

During his research Schultz got down to details and went out among the poor farming nations of Europe, talking to farmers and political leaders in small towns.

He theorized that if the U.S. instead used its resources to help educate these rural producers and provide them with technology and innovations they would be more stable, productive and self sustaining in the long run.

This theory combats a popular thought at the time held among development economists that the unwillingness of farmers of poor underdeveloped countries to innovate and expand their agricultural sectors was an irrational decision.

With this approach they would be free to try out any new innovations in technology and change in crops they decide to grow in pursuit of profits with very limited government intervention.

Within their small, individual, allocative domain, they are fine-tuning entrepreneurs, tuning so subtly that many experts fail to recognize how efficient they are.