Elizabeth Ellery Bailey ( Raymond; November 26, 1938 – August 19, 2022) was an American economist. She was the John C. Hower Professor of Business and Public Policy, at
The Wharton School
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in P ...
of the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
.
Bailey studied
deregulation
Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...
,
market competition
In economics, competition is a scenario where different Economic agent, economic firmsThis article follows the general economic convention of referring to all actors as firms; examples in include individuals and brands or divisions within the sa ...
and
regulatory capture
In politics, regulatory capture (also agency capture and client politics) is a form of corruption of authority that occurs when a political entity, policymaker, or regulator is co-opted to serve the commercial, ideological, or political interests ...
through her career and contributed to the
deregulation of the airline industry in the United States in the late 1970s.
Bailey was the first woman to graduate with a PhD in economics from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
and was considered a "pathbreaker for women in economics".
Early life
Bailey was born on November 26, 1938, in New York City to Henrietta Dana Raymond and Irving W. Raymond, both of whom were history professors. She was the second of five daughters in the family.
She grew up in New York City, where she graduated from the
Chapin School
Chapin School is an all-girls independent day school in New York City's Upper East Side neighborhood in Manhattan.
History
Maria Bowen Chapin opened "Miss Chapin's School for Girls and Kindergarten for Boys and Girls" in 1901. The school origin ...
in 1956. She received her bachelor's degree from
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...
, a master's degree from
Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology is a private research university in Hoboken, New Jersey. Founded in 1870, it is one of the oldest technological universities in the United States and was the first college in America solely dedicated to mechanical ...
and her Ph.D. from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
,
where she was the first woman to receive a
doctoral degree
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...
in
economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...
.
Career
Bailey started her career working as a computer programmer at
Bell Laboratories
Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984),
then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996)
and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007),
is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...
. Bailey worked in technical programming at
Bell Laboratories
Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984),
then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996)
and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007),
is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...
from 1960 to 1972, before transferring to the economic research section from 1972 to 1977.
She was the first woman appointed a department head (the economic research section) at Bell Laboratories.
During her time there, she was part of a group that studied
monopolies
A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...
and
regulatory distortions, and even gave presentations on the topic to
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
executives and advisors including
William Baumol
William Jack Baumol (February 26, 1922 – May 4, 2017) was an American economist. He was a professor of economics at New York University, Academic Director of the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and Professor Emeritus at Prin ...
and
Alfred E. Kahn, with whom she would later go on to collaborate.
In 1977,
President Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1 ...
named Bailey the first woman
Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) commissioner. In 1981, she was named the first woman vice chairman of the agency by
President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
.
Between 1977 and 1983 she served on the Civil Aeronautics Board, where she oversaw the
deregulation of the airline industry in the United States. Bailey studied
deregulation
Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...
and
regulatory capture
In politics, regulatory capture (also agency capture and client politics) is a form of corruption of authority that occurs when a political entity, policymaker, or regulator is co-opted to serve the commercial, ideological, or political interests ...
through her career and contributed to the passage of the
Airline Deregulation Act
The Airline Deregulation Act is a 1978 United States federal law that deregulated the airline industry in the United States, removing federal control over such areas as fares, routes, and market entry of new airlines. The Civil Aeronautics Boa ...
, a 1978 United States federal regulation that freed airlines from government control in pricing, route planning, competition and market composition.
Colleagues of the time including economist Kahn, noted her to have been the fiercest proponent of
deregulation
Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...
in the committee.
Outside of the field of deregulations, during her time at the CAB, she also pushed for the rights of non-smokers to be guaranteed a smoke-free seat in airlines, not liking cigarette smoke herself.
From 1983 to 1990, Bailey was Dean of the
Graduate School of Industrial Administration
The Tepper School of Business is the business school of Carnegie Mellon University. It is located in the university's campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US.
The school offers degrees from the undergraduate through doctoral levels, in addition t ...
of
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...
.
Bailey became the first woman dean to head a Top 10 graduate school with this appointment.
Bailey joined
The Wharton School
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in P ...
in July 1991, having served from July 1990 to June 1991 as a professor of industrial administration at
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), and as a visiting scholar at the
Yale School of Organization and Management.
She had served as dean at CMU between 1983 and 1990.
She was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
in 1997.
She served on the Board of Directors of
TIAA-CREF
The Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA, formerly TIAA-CREF), is a Fortune 100 financial services organization that is the leading provider of financial services in the academic, research, ...
,
Altria
Altria Group, Inc. (previously known as Philip Morris Companies, Inc.) is an American corporation and one of the world's largest producers and marketers of tobacco, cigarettes and related products. It operates worldwide and is headquartered in ...
, and
CSX Corporation
CSX Corporation is an American holding company focused on rail transportation and real estate in North America, among other industries. The company was established in 1980 as part of the Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries merger. T ...
, and was a trustee of
The Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row (Washington DC), Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the s ...
and a member of 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 ...
.
Bailey also served as the Vice Chairman of Bancroft NeuroHealth.
Bailey was noted to have opened opportunities for women in economics. An obituary in ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' called Bailey a "pathbreaker for women in economics".
She was the first woman to graduate with a doctorate in economics from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
and was often among the lone women in various corporate boards. During her confirmation hearing in the late 1970s to become the Civil Aeronautics Board commissioner, she was asked by
Ted Stevens
Theodore Fulton Stevens Sr. (November 18, 1923 – August 9, 2010) was an American politician and lawyer who served as a U.S. Senator from Alaska from 1968 to 2009. He was the longest-serving Republican Senator in history at the time he left o ...
, a senator from Alaska, about her "steel" to which she is noted to have remarked that she was "tougher" than she looked.
Bailey received the
Carolyn Shaw Bell award from the
American Economic Association
The American Economic Association (AEA) is a learned society in the field of economics. It publishes several peer-reviewed journals acknowledged in business and academia. There are some 23,000 members.
History and Constitution
The AEA was esta ...
in 2009.
She was inducted into the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
in 1977 and held a chair at 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 ...
.
Personal life
Bailey was married to James Lawrence Bailey in a marriage that ended in a divorce. She had two sons, with one of them predeceasing her in 2018.
Bailey was suffering from
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...
and died on August 19, 2022, at her home in
Reston, Virginia
Reston is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia and a principal city of the Washington metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, Reston's population was 63,226.
Founded in 1964, Reston was influenced by the Garden City movem ...
, aged 83.
Select published works
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bailey, Elizabeth
1938 births
2022 deaths
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American businesswomen
American women economists
Carnegie Mellon University faculty
Chapin School (Manhattan) alumni
Deaths from Parkinson's disease
Economists from New York (state)
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Neurological disease deaths in Virginia
Princeton University alumni
Radcliffe College alumni
Scientists at Bell Labs
University of Pennsylvania faculty
Yale University faculty
Writers from New York City
20th-century American economists
21st-century American economists