James Michael "Jim" Poterba, FBA (born July 13, 1958) is an American economist, Mitsui Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and current NBER president and chief executive officer.

Early years

Poterba was born in New York City. He completed his A.B., summa cum laude, in 1980 from Harvard University and completed his PhD in 1983 from Nuffield College, Oxford. He was a

Marshall Scholar The Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for "intellectually distinguished young Americans ndtheir country's future leaders" to study at any university in the United Kingdom. It is widely considered one of the most prestigious sc ...

Academic career

Poterba started his career as an instructor in Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He became Professor of Economics at MIT in 1988. Today, he is the Mitsui Professor of Economics. He became the president of the National Bureau of Economic Research on 1 July 2008.

Research

Poterba is known for his research on how taxation affects the economic decisions of households and firms. His research has emphasized the effect of taxation on the financial behavior of households, particularly their saving and portfolio decisions. He is also interested in the analysis of tax-deferred retirement saving programs such as 401(k) plans and in the role of annuities in financing retirement consumption. He has also been Director of the NBER Public Economics Research Program since 1991. He has served as a member of the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform and edited the '' Journal of Public Economics'', the leading international journal for research on taxation and government spending, between 1997 and 2006. He has edited several economics journals.

Honours

He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996. In 1999 Poterba was awarded the NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing from 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 ...

. In July 2017, Poterba was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.

Personal life

Poterba is married to economist Nancy Rose.

References

External links

Personal websiteBiography of James M. PoterbaCV of James M. PoterbaProfile of James M. PoterbaNBER Working Papers by James M. Poterba
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Poterba, James M. 1958 births Alumni of Nuffield College, Oxford Economists from New York (state) Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Harvard University alumni Living people MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences faculty Marshall Scholars Scientists from New York City Fellows of the Econometric Society Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy American chief executives National Bureau of Economic Research 21st-century American economists