Robert Morris Townsend (born April 23, 1948) is an 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 ...

and

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

; he is the Elizabeth & James Killian Professor of Economics at

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 the ...

. Prior to joining MIT, he was the Charles E. Merriam Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Economics 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 remained a

research associate Research associates are researchers (scholars and professionals) that usually have an advanced degree beyond a Master's degree. In some universities/research institutes, such as Harvard/Harvard Medical School/Harvard School of Public Health, the ...

(

) until 2018.

Biography

Robert Townsend was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1948. He is the brother of John S. Townsend, a professor of physics at

Harvey Mudd College Harvey Mudd College (HMC) is a private college in Claremont, California, focused on science and engineering. It is part of the Claremont Colleges, which share adjoining campus grounds and resources. The college enrolls 902 undergraduate students ...

. Townsend received his B.A. from

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

in 1970 and Ph.D. from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

in 1975. He began teaching at

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 ...

in 1975, and became a Professor at the

in 1985 where he stayed full-time until moving to MIT in 2008. From 1987 to 1989 Townsend was also editor of the

Journal of Political Economy The ''Journal of Political Economy'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press. Established by James Laurence Laughlin in 1892, it covers both theoretical and empirical economics. In the past, the ...

. In addition to his professorships, Townsend is the Principal Investigator and Project Director of th
Enterprise Initiative
funded by the

John Templeton Foundation The John Templeton Foundation (Templeton Foundation) is a philanthropic organization that reflects the ideas of its founder, John Templeton, who became wealthy via a career as a contrarian investor, and wanted to support progress in religious an ...

, and the Principal Investigator of the Consortium on Financial Systems and Poverty, funded by the

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was ...

. Additionally, he is a consultant for numerous institutions, including the

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (informally the Chicago Fed) is one of twelve regional Reserve Banks that, along with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, make up the United States' central bank. The Chicago Reserve Bank serves the Sevent ...

, the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

, and

Banco de España The Bank of Spain ( es, link=no, Banco de España) is the central bank of Spain. Established in Madrid in 1782 by Charles III of Spain, Charles III, today the bank is a member of the European System of Central Banks and is also Spain's national ...

. Townsend 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 ...

and of

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. ...

, as well as an Elected 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 ...

. He was the recipient of the

Jean-Jacques Laffont Jean-Jacques Marcel Laffont (April 13, 1947 – May 1, 2004) was a French economist specializing in public economics and information economics. Educated at the University of Toulouse and the Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration ...

Prize in 2011, and a

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 ...

in 1998 for his work on village India and in 2012 for the structural evaluation of a large-scale microfinance program in Thailand; Townsend is the award's only two-time winner.

Research

Townsend began his work as a theorist in general equilibrium models and contract theory/mechanism design, but is known primarily for his work on

revelation principle The revelation principle is a fundamental principle in mechanism design. It states that if a social choice function can be implemented by an arbitrary mechanism (i.e. if that mechanism has an equilibrium outcome that corresponds to the outcome of ...

costly state verification {{inline, date=December 2022 Costly State Verification (CSV) is an approach in contract theory that considers a contract design problem in which verification (or disclosure) of enterprise performance is costly and a lender has to pay a monitoring ...

, optimal multi-period contracts, decentralization of economies with private information, models of money with spatially separated agents, and forecasting the forecasts of others. His contributions in econometrics include the study of risk and insurance in developing countries. Since 1997, Townsend'
Thai Project
has undertaken large scale village surveys in Thailand to analyze the interaction between household decisions and community behavior at the level of families, villages, regions, and the nation. The Townsend Thai study was the first of its kind and has been the stepping stone for many other applied and theoretical projects in economic development and contract theory. Townsend's work has demonstrated innovation in the combination of theory and data, as well as the ability to work across various sub-fields. A documentary film about his research and field work in Thailand, titled ''Emerging Thailand: The Spirit of Small Enterprise,'' was created in 2012.

Films

In 2012, a series of documentary films was created about the people and research behind the Townsend Thai Project. The series consists of one main film and a set of smaller, shorter films that highlight the work of entrepreneurs in rural Thailand.
Emerging Thailand: The Spirit of Small Enterprise (34:15)

Portraits of Thailand: Silkworm Farmer (2:37)

Portraits of Thailand: Rubber Farmer (3:05)

Portraits of Thailand: Food Cart Owner (1:51)

Portraits of Thailand: Dairy Farmer (2:21)

Books

*(with Sombat Sakunthasathien and Rob Jordan) ''"Chronicles from the Field: The Townsend Thai Project"'' (MIT Press, 2013). (hard cover) (Ebook) * (with Krislert Samphantharak) ''Households as Corporate Firms: An Analysis of Household Finance Using Integrated Household Surveys and Corporate Financial Accounting'' (Cambridge University Press, 2010). . * ''Financial Systems in Developing Economies: Growth, Inequality, Poverty and Policy Evaluation in Thailand'' (Oxford University Press, 2008). . * ''The Medieval Village Economy: A Study of the Pareto Mapping in General Equilibrium Models'' (Princeton University Press, 1993). . * ''Financial Structure and Economic Organization: Key Elements and Patterns in Theory and History'' (Basil Blackwell, 1990). .

References

External links

Robert M. Townsend website at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Enterprise Initiative organized by Robert M. Townsend

The Consortium on Financial Systems and Poverty

Townsend Thai Project

UC-UTCC Research Center founded by Robert M. Townsend

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Townsend, Robert M. 1948 births Living people 21st-century American economists American development economists Duke University alumni University of Minnesota alumni Carnegie Mellon University faculty University of Chicago faculty MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences faculty Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Econometric Society Journal of Political Economy editors