David H. Autor (born 1967) is an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...
,
public policy
Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public ...
scholar, and professor of economics at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...
(MIT), where he also acts as co-director of the School Effectiveness and Inequality Initiative.
[Curriculum Vitae of David Autor](_blank)
/ref> Although Autor has contributed to a variety of fields in economics his research generally focuses on topics from labor economics.
Education and early life
David Autor enrolled in Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
after high school, but dropped out and worked as an administrative assistant and software developer in a Boston hospital. He later returned to college, ultimately earning a B.A. in psychology from Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
in 1989. After graduating from Tufts, he pursued volunteer work with a Methodist church in San Francisco that was teaching computer skills to disadvantaged students. In the Bay Area, Autor discovered his passion for economics and public policy and pursued an M.A. and Ph.D. in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government (Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
), which he earned in 1994 and 1999 respectively.
Academic career
After completing his Ph.D. David Autor was hired as assistant professor
Assistant Professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States and Canada.
Overview
This position is generally taken after earning a doctoral degree
A docto ...
at MIT's economics department, where he became the Pentti J.K. Kouri Career Development Assistant Professor of Economics in 2002 before being promoted to associate professor
Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''.
Overview
In the '' North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is ...
in 2003 and receiving tenure in 2005. He finally was made full professor at MIT in 2008 where he taught undergraduate courses titled "Microeconomic Theory and Public Policy" and "Putting Social Science to the Test: Experiments in Economics." In parallel to his position at MIT, Autor is or has been affiliated with several research institutions, including the National Bureau of Economic Research
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic c ...
, the Poverty Action Lab, IZA and IZA World of Labor, is or has been the editor of economic academic journals such as the ''Journal of Economic Perspectives
The ''Journal of Economic Perspectives'' (JEP) is an economic
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the pra ...
'' (2009–14), ''Journal of Labor Economics
A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to:
*Bullet journal, a method of personal organization
* Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period
*Daybook, also known as a general journal, ...
'' (2007–08), ''Journal of Economic Literature
The ''Journal of Economic Literature'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal, published by the American Economic Association, that surveys the academic literature in economics. It was established in 1963 as the ''Journal of Economic Abstracts'', '' (2004–06) and the ''Review of Economics and Statistics
''The'' ''Review of Economics and Statistics'' is a peer-reviewed 103-year-old general journal that focuses on applied economics, with specific relevance to the scope of quantitative economics. The ''Review'', edited at the Harvard University’s K ...
'' (2002-2008). Finally, he is a co-director of the MIT School Effectiveness and Inequality Initiative (SEII), a research program focusing on the economics of education and the relationship between human capital and the American income distribution, as well as an associate director of the NBER Disability Research Center.
Research
David Autor's research can be broadly categorized into five strands: (1) Inequality, technological change, and globalization; (2) disability and labor force participation; (3) labor market intermediation; (4) neighborhoods, housing market spillovers, and price controls; and (5) labor market impacts of wrongful discharge
In United Kingdom law, the concept of wrongful dismissal refers exclusively to dismissal contrary to the contract of employment, which effectively means premature termination, either due to insufficient notice or lack of grounds. Although wrongf ...
protections. The economics bibliographic database IDEAS/RePEc
Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) is a collaborative effort of hundreds of volunteers in many countries to enhance the dissemination of research in economics. The heart of the project is a decentralized database of working papers, preprints, ...
ranks him among the top 5% of economists under a number of criteria, including ''average rank score'', ''number of works'' and ''number of citations''. His most cited article, co-authored with Alan B. Krueger
Alan Bennett Krueger (September 17, 1960 – March 16, 2019) was an American economist who was the James Madison Professor of Political Economy at Princeton University and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He served ...
and Lawrence F. Katz, studies the effect of skill-biased technological change in the form of computer
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These prog ...
ization on the diverging U.S. education wage differentials and finds evidence suggesting that computerization has increased skill-based wage premia in the U.S. by requiring rapid skill upgrading, which in turn has increased the labor demand for college graduates relative to workers without tertiary education as well as the wage premium associated with a college degree. In 2009 Autor contributed to the book "Studies of Labor Market Intermediation" as an editor during his time at the University of Chicago. He would later go on to write "The Work of the Future: Building Better Jobs in Age of Smart Machines" with his colleagues at MIT. In an influential 2013 study co-authored with David Dorn and Gordon H. Hanson, Autor showed that U.S. exposure to Chinese trade competition "caused higher unemployment, lower labor force participation, and reduced wages in local labor markets that house import-competing manufacturing industries". The study nonetheless finds that trade is a net gain for the population as a whole, and Autor has been an advocate for the Trans-Pacific Partnership as a means to protect U.S. workers. In 2020, Dr. Autor received the 25th Anniversary Special Recognition Heinz Award
The Heinz Awards are individual achievement honors given annually by the Heinz Family Foundation. The Heinz Awards each year recognize outstanding individuals for their innovative contributions in three areas: the Arts, the Economy and the Enviro ...
for his work and also received attention for his work with Elisabeth Reynolds on the adverse impacts of coronavirus disease 2019
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...
on the office economy.
References
Sources
Curriculum Vitae of David Autor
{{DEFAULTSORT:Autor, David
Living people
Harvard Kennedy School alumni
Labor economists
Tufts University School of Arts and Sciences alumni
Fellows of the Econometric Society
Sloan Research Fellows
MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences faculty
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Year of birth missing (living people)
Place of birth missing (living people)
20th-century American economists
21st-century American economists
Urban Institute people