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SCI LIBRARY

Mary M. Cleveland


Mary M. Cleveland (Polly) served on the board of the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation from 1994 thru 2004. She discovered the ideas of Henry George in 1970, while working on a Ralph Nader project investigating the political influence of large California landowners. Subsequently she served on the board of the Henry George School of San Francisco, and was President in 1973.

Dr. Cleveland received an AB in Physics from Harvard in 1966, and a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1984. Her dissertation, entitled Consequences and Causes of Unequal Distribution of Wealth, took some of George's basic arguments and showed that they could be demonstrated using standard neo-classical economic models. The models show, among other things, that in a world with transactions costs, unequal distribution of wealth lowers an economy's productivity and growth.

She has worked as the controller of small family pharmaceutical company, taught accounting and computer systems at Rutgers University, and supervised the renovation of two apartment buildings in Manhattan. Since 1994, she has been the Director of Research at The Partnership for Responsible Drug Information, (prdi.org) a non-profit that encourages open and well-informed discussion of drug policy.