The two brothers, Holbrook Working and Elmer Joseph Working, were both distinguished statisticians who made seminal contributions to the early development of econometrics.
Holbrook Working, 1895-1985.
The elder Working brother was an agricultural economist at the Stanford Food Research Institute. His early work on demand (1925 - which preceded that of Schultz), was one of the earliest demonstrations of the "identification" problem, albeit he saw it merely as a data problem and not a theoretical one. His early sympathy with the work of Slutsky and the "probability approach" was also prescient.
Perhaps his greater claim to fame is in the theory of finance where he advanced theories on futures markets and hedging. In particular, Working challenged Keynes's (1923, 1930) view that hedgers on futures markets paid a risk premium to speculators in order to divest themselves of all risk. Working (1953, 1962) claimed that hedgers still bear risk - but of a different type, namely quantity risk. Thus hedging, in Working's view, was merely a way of arbitraging between two markets - the spot and the futures.
Elmer Joseph Working, 1900-1968.
The real discoverer of true nature of the "identification" problem in econometrics and the first to suggest that the solution to it is at least partly theoretical. His specific suggestion was that theory be used to pre-adjust the data. Working's survey of statistical studies of demand (1934) is authoritative and prescient in recognizing the importance of econometrics for both economic theory and policy.
Resources on the Working Brothers