James Joseph Heckman (born April 19, 1944) is a

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

-winning American

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 ...

at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, where he is The

Henry Schultz Henry Schultz (September 4, 1893 – November 26, 1938) was an American economist, statistician, and one of the founders of econometrics. Paul Samuelson named Schultz (along with Harry Gunnison Brown, Allyn Abbott Young, Henry Ludwell Moore, Fr ...

Distinguished Service Professor in Economics and

the College ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

; Professor at the

Harris School of Public Policy The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, also referred to as "Harris Public Policy," is the public policy school of the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is located on the University's main campus in H ...

; Director of the Center for the Economics of Human Development (CEHD); and Co-Director of Human Capital and Economic Opportunity (HCEO) Global Working Group. He is also Professor of Law at the Law School, a senior research fellow at the American Bar Foundation, and a research associate 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 ...

. In 2000, Heckman shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with

Daniel McFadden Daniel Little McFadden (born July 29, 1937) is an American econometrician who shared the 2000 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with James Heckman. McFadden's share of the prize was "for his development of theory and methods for analyzi ...

, for his pioneering work in

econometrics Econometrics is the application of Statistics, statistical methods to economic data in order to give Empirical evidence, empirical content to economic relationships.M. Hashem Pesaran (1987). "Econometrics," ''The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of ...

and

microeconomics Microeconomics is a branch of mainstream economics that studies the behavior of individuals and firms in making decisions regarding the allocation of scarce resources and the interactions among these individuals and firms. Microeconomics fo ...

. As of December 2020, according to RePEc, he is the second-most influential economist in the world.

Early years

Heckman was born to John Jacob Heckman and Bernice Irene Medley in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. He received his B.A. in mathematics from

Colorado College Colorado College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell in his daughter's memory. The college enrolls approxi ...

in 1965 and his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

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 ...

in 1971 after completing a doctoral dissertation titled "Three essays on the supply of labor and the demand for goods" under the supervision of

Stanley W. Black Stanley may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Stanley'' (1972 film), an American horror film * ''Stanley'' (1984 film), an Australian comedy * ''Stanley'' (1999 film), an animated short * ''Stanley'' (1956 TV series) ...

Career

He served as an assistant professor at

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 ...

before he moved to the

, in 1973. He has been a dissertation advisor for over 70 students, including Carolyn Heinrich,

George Borjas George Jesus Borjas ( born Jorge Jesús Borjas, October 15, 1950) is a Cuban-American economist and the Robert W. Scrivner Professor of Economics and Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. He has been described as "America’s leading immigr ...

, Stephen Cameron, Mark Rosenzweig, and

Russ Roberts Russell David "Russ" Roberts (born September 19, 1954) is an American economist, who is currently a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and president designate of Shalem College in Jerusalem. He is known for communicating ...

. In addition to serving as the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor and director of the Economics Research Center in the department of economics, Heckman is also a professor of law at the Law School and a professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, where he is director of both the Center for Social Program Evaluation and Center for the Study of Childhood Development. He also serves as a member of the

Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics The Gary Becker Milton Friedman Institute for Research in Economics is a collaborative, cross-disciplinary center for research in economics. The institute was established at the University of Chicago in June 2011. It brought together the activit ...

's Research Council. Heckman has held many appointments at other institutions and notably served as the Distinguished Chair of Microeconometrics at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

(2004-2008), a Professor of Science and Society at

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...

(2005-2014), and as the Alfred Cowles Distinguished Visiting Professor at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

(2008-2011). His current appointments include Presidential Scholar-in-Residence at the University of Southern California's Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics (2015-) and International Research Fellow at the

Institute for Fiscal Studies The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) is an economic research institute based in London, United Kingdom, which specialises in UK taxation and public policy. It produces both academic and policy-related findings. The institute's aim is to "ad ...

(2014-).

Center for the Economics of Human Development

Founded in 2014 and directed by Heckman, the Center for the Economics of Human Development (CEHD), at the University of Chicago, umbrellas his multiple research areas and initiatives that encompass rigorous empirical research to determine effective human capital policies and program design. CEHD initiatives include the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Global Working Group, the Pritzker Consortium on Early Childhood Development, the

Heckman Equation Heckman is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Charles Adam Heckman, brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War *James Heckman (born 1944), American economist and Nobel laureate *John Heckman (1785–1871), p ...

, the Research Network on the Determinants of Life Course Capabilities and Outcomes, and the Asian Family in Transition Initiative. Along with professor Steve Durlauf, Heckman is the Co-Director of the HCEO Working Group.

Research

Heckman is noted for his contributions to

selection bias Selection bias is the bias introduced by the selection of individuals, groups, or data for analysis in such a way that proper randomization is not achieved, thereby failing to ensure that the sample obtained is representative of the population int ...

and

self-selection In statistics, self-selection bias arises in any situation in which individuals select themselves into a group, causing a biased sample with nonprobability sampling. It is commonly used to describe situations where the characteristics of the peop ...

analysis, especially

Heckman correction The Heckman correction is a statistical technique to correct bias from non-randomly selected samples or otherwise incidentally truncated dependent variables, a pervasive issue in quantitative social sciences when using observational data. Concep ...

, which earned him the Nobel Prize in Economics. He is also well known for his empirical research in labor economics, particularly regarding the efficacy of

early childhood education Early childhood education (ECE), also known as nursery education, is a branch of education theory that relates to the teaching of children (formally and informally) from birth up to the age of eight. Traditionally, this is up to the equivale ...

programs. His work has been devoted to the development of a scientific basis for economic policy evaluation, with special emphasis on models of individuals and disaggregated groups, and the problems and possibilities created by heterogeneity, diversity, and unobserved counterfactual states. He developed a body of new econometric tools that address these issues. His research has given policymakers important new insights into areas such as education, jobtraining, the importance of accounting for general equilibrium in the analysis of labor markets, anti-discrimination law, and civil rights. He demonstrated a strong causal effect of the

Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and United States labor law, labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on Race (human categorization), race, Person of color, color, religion, sex, and nationa ...

in promoting

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

economic progress. He has recently demonstrated that the high school dropout rate is increasing in the US. He has studied the economic benefits of sorting in the labor market, the ineffectiveness of active labor market programs, and the economic returns to education. His recent research focuses on inequality, human development and lifecycle skill formation, with a special emphasis on the economics of early childhood education. He is currently conducting new social experiments on early childhood interventions and reanalyzing old experiments. He is also studying the emergence of the underclass in the US and

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...

. For example, he showed that a high IQ only improved an individual's chances of financial success by 1 or 2%. Instead, "conscientiousness," or "diligence, perseverance and self-discipline," are what led to financial success. In the early 1990s, his pioneering research, on the outcomes of people who obtain the

GED The General Educational Development (GED) tests are a group of four subject tests which, when passed, provide certification that the test taker has United States or Canadian high school-level academic skills. It is an alternative to the US high ...

certificate, received national attention. Heckman has published over 300 articles and several books. His books include ''Inequality in America: What Role for Human Capital Policy?'' (with Alan Krueger); ''Evaluating Human Capital Policy, Law, and Employment: Lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean'' (with Carmen Pages); the ''Handbook of Econometrics'', volumes 5, 6A, and 6B (edited with Edward Leamer); ''Global Perspectives on the Rule of Law,'' (edited with R. Nelson and L. Cabatingan); and ''The Myth of Achievement Tests: The GED and the Role of Character in American Life'' (with John Eric Humphries and Tim Kautz). He is currently co-editor of the ''Journal of Political Economy''. He is also a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

(USA) and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

. He is 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 ...

, the

Econometric Society The Econometric Society is an international society of academic economists interested in applying statistical tools to their field. It is an independent organization with no connections to societies of professional mathematicians or statisticians. ...

(of which he is also former president), the Society of Labor Economics, the

American Statistical Association The American Statistical Association (ASA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts on November 27, 1839, and is the second oldest continuousl ...

, and the

International Statistical Institute The International Statistical Institute (ISI) is a professional association of statisticians. It was founded in 1885, although there had been international statistical congresses since 1853. The institute has about 4,000 elected members from gov ...

Awards

Heckman has received numerous awards for his work, including the

John Bates Clark Medal The John Bates Clark Medal is awarded by the American Economic Association to "that American economist under the age of forty who is adjudged to have made a significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge." The award is named after the ...

of the American Economic Association in 1983, the 2005 and 2007 Dennis Aigner Award for Applied Econometrics from the ''

Journal of Econometrics The ''Journal of Econometrics'' is a scholarly journal in econometrics. It was first published in 1973. Its current managing editors are Serena Ng and Elie Tamer, Torben Andersen and Xiaohong Chen serve as editors. The journal publishes work deal ...

'', the 2005 Jacob Mincer Award for Lifetime Achievement in Labor Economics, the 2005 Ulysses Medal from the

, the 2007 Theodore W. Schultz Award from the

American Agricultural Economics Association The Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA) is a not-for-profit professional association for those interested in the field of agricultural and applied economics. The AAEA association has an annual meeting every year. It publishes two ...

, the Gold Medal of the President of the Italian Republic awarded by the International Scientific Committee of the Pio Manzú Centre in 2008, the Distinguished Contributions to Public Policy for Children Award from the

Society for Research in Child Development The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) is a professional society for the field of human development, focusing specifically on child development. It is a multidisciplinary, not-for-profit, professional association with a membership o ...

in 2009, the 2014

Frisch Medal The Frisch Medal is an award in economics given by the Econometric Society. It is awarded every two years for empirical or theoretical applied research published in ''Econometrica'' during the previous five years. The award was named in honor of Ra ...

from the

, the 2014 Spirit of Erikson Award from the

Erikson Institute Erikson Institute is a graduate school in child development in downtown Chicago, Illinois. It is named for the noted psychoanalyst and developmental psychologist, Erik Erikson. History and mission The Institute was founded in 1966 by four chil ...

, and the 2016

Dan David Prize The Dan David Prize is a major international award that recognizes and supports outstanding contributions to the study of history and other disciplines that shed light on the human past. It awards nine prizes of $300,000 each year to outstanding ...

for Combating Poverty.

Personal life

Heckman in 1979 married sociologist Lynne Pettler-Heckman, who died July 8, 2017. They had two children: a son, Jonathan (b. 1982) who is a physicist at 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 ...

, and a daughter, Alma (b. 1986), who is an assistant professor of history at the

University of California at Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay, on the edge o ...

References

External links

James J. Heckman's Homepage at the University of Chicago
Center for the Economics of Human Development'
Heckman Media Coverage & Policy Impact

Interview with James J. Heckman in The Region, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, 2005

on the economic arguments for investing in the health of our children's learning * *
James Heckman: In early childhood education, ‘Quality really matters.’
Phone interview with 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 ...

* * * includes the Prize Lecture 8 December 2000 ''Microdata, Heterogeneity and the Evaluation of Public Policy'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Heckman, James 1944 births Living people Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Academics of University College London Labor economists Education economists American Nobel laureates Econometricians Microeconomists Microeconometricians Nobel laureates in Economics Princeton University alumni University of Chicago alumni University of Chicago faculty Columbia University faculty Colorado College alumni 20th-century American economists 21st-century American economists Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the Econometric Society Presidents of the Econometric Society Fellows of the American Statistical Association Elected Members of the International Statistical Institute Members of the American Philosophical Society University of Southern California faculty University of Chicago Law School faculty American educational theorists Distinguished Fellows of the American Economic Association Institute for New Economic Thinking National Bureau of Economic Research Journal of Political Economy editors