MIT Department of Economics

The MIT Department of Economics is a department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Undergraduate studies in economics were introduced in the 19th century by institute president Francis Amasa Walker, while the department's Ph.D. program was introduced in 1941. The American Economics Association estimates that MIT and these peers produce half of all tenure track professors at U.S. research universities.^{[citation needed]} By 2020, the department has the second highest number of Ph.D. alumni who received the Nobel Prize in Economics in the world (12) only behind Harvard Economics (13) and ahead of UChicago Economics (9). Nine out of 18 Clark medalists since 1999 received Ph.D. degrees from the department.

History

In the 1890s, economists including Francis Amasa Walker and Davis Rich Dewey taught courses in economics to the undergraduate students.^[1] It was known as the Department of Economics and Social Sciences (1932). In 1937, the department established a graduate program, while in 1941, it established a Ph.D. program.^[2] In the 1950s and the 1960s, the department expanded its graduate program.^[3] In these years, the program became more quantitatively oriented and emphasized technical training.^[4] Approximately 25 students enrolled each year.^[5] In the 1970s, the first Black American graduate students joined the program as part of a desegregation program.^[6]

Prominent faculty

Paul Samuelson (1940–2009), Nobel Prize, 1970
Franco Modigliani (1962–2003), Nobel Prize, 1985
John Williamson (1967–1980), originator of the 'Washington Consensus'
Robert Solow, (1960–1979) Nobel Prize, 1987
Stanley Fischer, (1977–1988), Vice-Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Governor of Bank of Israel
Robert F. Engle, (1969-1977), Nobel Prize, 2003
Daniel McFadden, (1977–1991), Nobel Prize, 2000^[7]
George P. Shultz, (1948–1957), Former Secretary of State, Secretary of Treasury, Secretary of Labour
Myron S. Scholes (1968–1973), Nobel prize in 1997 for the Black-Scholes equation
Rudi Dornbusch (1975–2002), known for the Overshooting Model^[8]
Francesco Giavazzi (1989–present)^[9]

Nobel Laureates

Among the department's past and current faculty and alumni are several recipients of the Nobel Prize in Economics:

Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, 2024
Joshua Angrist, 2021
Esther Duflo (Ph.D., 1999) and Abhijit Banerjee, 2019
William Nordhaus, 2018
Bengt Holmstrom, 2016
Jean Tirole, 2014
Robert J. Shiller, 2013
Peter A. Diamond, 2010
Oliver E. Williamson, 2009
Paul Krugman (Ph.D., 1977), 2008
Eric Maskin, 2007
Edmund Phelps, 2006
Robert J. Aumann, 2005
Robert F. Engle, 2003
George Akerlof (Ph.D., 1966) and Joseph Stiglitz (Ph.D., 1967), 2001
Daniel McFadden, 2000
Robert Mundell (Ph.D., 1956), 1999
Amartya Sen, 1998
Robert C. Merton (Ph.D, 1970), 1997
Robert Solow, 1987
Franco Modigliani, 1985
Lawrence Klein (Ph.D., 1944), 1980
Paul Samuelson, 1970

Current Faculty

Professors

Alberto Abadie
Daron Acemoglu
George-Marios Angeletos
Joshua Angrist
David Autor
Abhijit Banerjee
Ricardo J. Caballero
Victor Chernozhukov
Arnaud Costinot
Esther Duflo
Glenn Ellison [past Department Head]
Amy Finkelstein
Drew Fudenberg
Robert S. Gibbons
Jonathan Gruber
Jeffrey Harris
Bengt R. Holmström [past Department Head]
Whitney K. Newey
Benjamin Olken
Parag Pathak
James M. Poterba [past Department Head]
Drazen Prelec
Nancy Rose [current Department Head]
Robert M. Townsend
John Van Reenen
Iván Werning
Michael Whinston
Alexander Wolitzky
Muhamet Yildiz

Associate Professors

Anna Mikusheva

Assistant Professors

Nikhil Agarwal
Isiah Andrews
David Atkin
Frank Schilbach

Senior Lecturer

Sara Fisher Ellison

Professors Emeriti

Morris Adelman
Sidney Alexander
Robert L. Bishop [former Department Head, former Dean School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences]
Olivier Blanchard
Richard S. Eckaus [past Department Head]
Peter A. Diamond [past Department Head]
Stanley Fischer [past Department Head]
Paul Joskow [past Department Head]
Michael Piore
Jerome Rothenberg
Richard L. Schmalensee
Abraham J. Seigel
Robert Solow
Peter Temin [past Department Head]
William Wheaton

Affiliated Faculty

Former Faculty

Susan Athey (Ph.D., Stanford) John Bates Clark Medal, 2007
E. Cary Brown (Ph.D., Harvard) Professor of Economics, Emeritus
Evsey Domar (Ph.D., Harvard)
Rudi Dornbusch (Ph.D., Chicago) Ford International Professor, International Economics
Robert F. Engle (Ph.D., Cornell)
Stanley Fischer (Ph.D., MIT)
Charles P. Kindleberger (Ph.D., Columbia) Ford International Professor of Economics, Emeritus
Edwin Kuh (Ph.D., Harvard)
Paul Krugman (Ph.D., MIT) John Bates Clark Medal, 1991
Eric Maskin (Ph.D., Harvard)
Daniel McFadden (Ph.D., Minnesota)
Franco Modigliani (D.Jur., Rome and D.Soc.Sci., The New School for Social Research) Institute Professor Emeritus; Professor of Finance & Economics
George P. Shultz (Ph.D., MIT)
Hal Varian (Ph.D., Berkeley)

Notable alumni

Lawrence R. Klein (Ph.D., 1944) John Bates Clark Medalist, 1959; president of the Econometric Society, 1960; president of the American Economic Association, 1977; Laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 1980
Margaret Garritsen de Vries (Ph.D., 1946) Carolyn Shaw Bell Award Recipient, 2002
George P. Shultz (Ph.D., 1949) Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 2004
Ronald W. Jones (Ph.D., 1956) Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 2009
William Nordhaus (Ph.D., 1967), Council of Economic Advisers 1977 - 1979
Mario Draghi (Ph.D., 1976) Governor of the Banca d'Italia, chairman of the Financial Stability Forum, president of the European Central Bank
Robert A. Mundell (Ph.D., 1956) Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 1996; Laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 1999
Peter A. Diamond (Ph.D., 1963) president of the Econometric Society, 1991; president of the American Economic Association, 2003; Laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 2010
Riccardo Faini, (PhD), former head of the Economic and Financial Analysis Service of the Italian Ministry of Treasury
George A. Akerlof (Ph.D., 1966) Laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 2001; president of the American Economic Association, 2006
Joseph E. Stiglitz (Ph.D., 1966) John Bates Clark Medalist, 1979; Laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 2001
Jagdish N. Bhagwati (Ph.D., 1967) Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 2003
Robert E. Hall (Ph.D., 1967) president of the American Economic Association, 2010
William D. Nordhaus (Ph.D., 1967) Member of the Council of Economic Advisers, 1977–1979; Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 2004; president of the American Economic Association, 2014; Laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 2018
Avinash K. Dixit (Ph.D., 1968) president of the Econometric Society, 2001; president of the American Economic Association, 2008
Robert J. Gordon (Ph.D., 1967) Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 2014
Michael Rothschild, (Ph.D., 1968) Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 2005
Stanley Fischer (Ph.D., 1969) Vice-Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Governor of the Bank of Israel; Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 2013
Robert C. Merton (Ph.D., 1970) president of the American Finance Association, 1986; Laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 1997
Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, (M.Sc. 1970), European Central Bank executive board 1998-2005, former Italian minister of economy and finance
Jeremy J. Siegel (Ph.D., 1971) financial markets guru
Martin Neil Baily (Ph.D., 1972) Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, 1999–2001
Alan S. Blinder (Ph.D., 1971) Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 2011
Robert J. Shiller (Ph.D., 1972) Fellow of the American Finance Association, 2006; Laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 2013
Lawrence Summers (B.S., 1975) Secretary of the Treasury, 1999–2001
Mario Draghi (Ph.D., 1976) president of the European Central Bank 2011-, Governor of the Banca d'Italia, Chairman of the Financial Stability Forum
Paul R. Krugman (Ph.D., 1977) Member of the Council of Economic Advisers, 1982–1983; John Bates Clark Medalist, 1991; Laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 2008
Lucas Papademos (Ph.D., 1977) vice president of the European Central Bank, 2002-
Ben S. Bernanke (Ph.D., 1979) Chairman of the Federal Reserve, 2006-2014
Kenneth S. Rogoff (Ph.D., 1980) IMF chief economist
Jean Tirole (Ph.D., 1981) president of the Econometric Society, 1998; president of the European Economic Association, 2001; Laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 2014
N. Gregory Mankiw (Ph.D., 1984) Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, 2003–2005
Andrei Shleifer (Ph.D., 1986) John Bates Clark Medalist, 1999
Matthew Rabin (Ph.D., 1989) John Bates Clark Medalist, 2001
Andrew Samwick (Ph.D., 1993) Member of the Council of Economic Advisers, 2003–2004
Judith Chevalier (Ph.D., 1993) Elaine Bennett Research Prize recipient, 1998
Steven D. Levitt (Ph.D., 1994) John Bates Clark Medalist, 2003; co-author of Freakonomics
Emmanuel Saez (Ph.D., 1999) John Bates Clark Medalist, 2009
Esther Duflo (Ph.D. 1999), John Bates Clark Medalist, 2010; Elaine Bennett Research Prize recipient, 2002; Laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 2019; co-author Poor Economics
Jonathan Levin (Ph.D., 1999) John Bates Clark Medalist, 2011
Amy Finkelstein (Ph.D., 2001) John Bates Clark Medalist, 2012; Elaine Bennett Research Prize recipient, 2008

References

^ "Economics in MIT's fourth school". Soundings.
^ "About the Program". MIT Economics.
^ Cherrier, Beatrice (2013). "A Preliminary History of Economics at MIT, 1940-1972". History of Political Economy.
^ Duarte, Pedro Garcia (2014). "The Early Years of the MIT PhD Program in Industrial Economics". History of Political Economy. 46: 81–108. doi:10.1215/00182702-2716127.
^ Collier, Irwin (7 February 2018). "M.I.T. GRADUATE ECONOMICS PROGRAM BROCHURE, 1961".
^ Darity, William; Kreeger, Arden (2013). "The Desegregation of an Elite Economics Department's PhD Program: Black Americans at MIT". History of Political Economy.
^ "McFadden developed Nobel winning theory at MIT".
^ "Rudiger Dornbusch". The Economist. 8 August 2002.
^ "Author(s) | the MIT Press".

External links

MIT Department of Economics website

[1] "Economics in MIT's fourth school". Soundings.

[2] "About the Program". MIT Economics.

[3] Cherrier, Beatrice (2013). "A Preliminary History of Economics at MIT, 1940-1972". History of Political Economy.

[4] Duarte, Pedro Garcia (2014). "The Early Years of the MIT PhD Program in Industrial Economics". History of Political Economy. 46: 81–108. doi:10.1215/00182702-2716127.

[5] Collier, Irwin (7 February 2018). "M.I.T. GRADUATE ECONOMICS PROGRAM BROCHURE, 1961".

[6] Darity, William; Kreeger, Arden (2013). "The Desegregation of an Elite Economics Department's PhD Program: Black Americans at MIT". History of Political Economy.

[7] "McFadden developed Nobel winning theory at MIT".

[8] "Rudiger Dornbusch". The Economist. 8 August 2002.

[9] "Author(s) | the MIT Press".

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