The NBER Reporter 2013 Number 4: News

NBER Research Associates Lars Peter Hansen and Robert Shiller shared the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economics with Eugene Fama. Hansen is the David Rockefeller Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. He is a research associate in the NBER's Asset Pricing (AP) and Economic Fluctuations and Growth (EFG) programs. Shiller is the Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University, a research associate in the NBER's AP, EFG, and Monetary Economics programs, and the co-director of the NBER's Behavioral Economics working group. Fama is the Robert McCormick Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

The award citation prepared by the Prize Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences highlighted the researchers' work on "the empirical analysis of asset prices." The background material that describes the prize citation, which may be found at
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/2013/popular-economicsciences2013.pdf
notes the critical role that asset prices play in influencing a wide range of economic behaviors, and then explains that "[a]lthough we do not yet fully understand how asset prices are determined, the research of the laureates has revealed a number of important empirical regularities that are helping us to arrive at better explanations."

Hansen and Shiller join a long list of current and past NBER affiliates who have received the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, which is often called the Nobel Prize in Economics. Past NBER-affiliated winners include: Alvin Roth, 2012; Thomas Sargent and Christopher Sims, 2011; Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen, 2010; Paul Krugman, 2008; Edward Prescott and Finn Kydland, 2004; Robert Engle, 2003; George Akerlof and Joseph Stiglitz, 2001; James Heckman and Daniel McFadden, 2000; Robert Merton and Myron Scholes, 1997; Robert Lucas, Jr., 1995; Gary Becker, 1992; the late Robert Fogel, 1993; George Stigler, 1982; Theodore Schultz, 1979; Milton Friedman, 1976; and Simon Kuznets, 1971.

At its September 2013 meeting, the NBER Board of Directors elected Richard L. Schmalensee as a new member, representing the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Schmalensee, who received his S.B. and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from MIT, is the Howard W. Johnson Professor of Economics and Management, Emeritus, Professor of Economics, Emeritus, and Director of the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He served as the John C Head III Dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management from 1998 through 2007, and was a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers from 1989 through 1991. Schmalensee is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the International Academy of Management and the National Commission on Energy Policy, and prior to his election to the NBER Board, he was a Research Associate in the NBER's Programs on Industrial Organization and Energy and Environmental Economics. He has served on the executive committee of the American Economic Association, is a director of the International Securities Exchange and the International Data Group, and has served as a consultant to both corporations and government agencies.

The NBER Board of Directors also elected former board member Franklin M. Fisher to the rank of Director Emeritus.

A number of NBER researchers were tapped for public policy positions in the past year. Several resigned from the NBER on account of their new affiliations. John Friedman, formerly a Faculty Research Fellow in the Public Economics, Health Care, and Aging Programs, resigned to join the National Economic Council, where he serves as a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. He is on leave from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy.

Research Associate Betsey Stevenson resigned from the NBER's Programs on Law and Economics and Labor Studies to join the President's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). She is on leave from the University of Michigan, where she is an Associate Professor of Public Policy and Economics.

James Stock, formerly a Research Associate in the NBER's Programs on Monetary Economics, Economic Fluctuations and Growth, and Asset Pricing, has also been appointed to the CEA. He is on leave from Harvard University, where he is the Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy.

In addition to the foregoing researchers who have resigned from the NBER, a number of other researchers have taken leave from the NBER to serve in various government positions. Raghuram Rajan, a past Director of the NBER's Corporate Finance Program and a Research Associate in that program as well as the International Finance and Macroeconomics Program, has been appointed Governor of the Royal Bank of India. He is on leave from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he serves as the Eric J. Gleacher Distinguished Service Professor of Finance.

Several other researchers are serving in Washington. They include: Research Associate Jon Faust of Johns Hopkins University, who is on leave as a special adviser at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors; Research Associate Martin Gaynor of Carnegie Mellon University who is the Director of the Bureau of Economics at the Federal Trade Commission; Research Associate Susan Helper of Case Western Reserve University, who is the Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Commerce; Research Associate Jennifer Hunt of Rutgers University, who is serving as the Chief Economist of the U.S. Department of Labor; Faculty Research Fellow Matthew Kotchen of Yale University, who is on leave as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Environment and Energy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury; Research Associate Aviv Nevo of Northwestern University, who is on leave as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Economic Analysis at the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division; and Faculty Research Fellow Wesley Yin of Boston University, who is on leave as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Microeconomic Analysis at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Finally, Research Associate Gary Richardson of the University of California at Irvine, is on leave as the Federal Reserve System Historian at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

A number of other past NBER affiliates also continue to serve in a variety of public policy positions.