Please note that this event has been postponed and will be rescheduled for fall 2020.
Nobel laureate economist James Heckman, the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, will give a talk on the economics of inequality and early childhood investments.
Professor Heckman conducts groundbreaking work on the benefits to individuals and society of investments in quality early childhood development and health, economic, and social outcomes. Heckman has shown that there are significant economic gains in early childhood investments. His recent interdisciplinary research on human development and skill formation over the life cycle draws on economics, psychology, genetics, epidemiology, and neuroscience to examine the origins of inequality, the determinants of social mobility, and the links among stages of the life cycle, starting in the womb. Heckman has a BA in Mathematics from Colorado College and an MA and PhD in Economics from Princeton University. He is one of the founders of the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.
In 2000, Heckman shared the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on the microeconometrics of diversity and heterogeneity and for establishing a sound causal basis for public policy evaluation. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, USA; a member of the American Philosophical Society; a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the American Association for the Advancement of Science; the Econometric Society; the Society of Labor Economics; the American Statistical Association; the International Statistical Institute; and the National Academy of Education. He has received numerous honorary degrees, most recently from University College London in 2013, and is a foreign member of Academica Sinica and the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.
He is currently co-editor of the Journal of Political Economy. He has published over 300 articles and 9 books. His most recent book is The Myth of Achievement Tests: The GED and the Role of Character in American Life (University of Chicago Press, 2014). He is actively engaged in conducting and guiding empirical and theoretical research on skill development, inequality, and social mobility.