MIT Department of Economics

The MIT Department of Economics is a department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Undergraduate studies in economics were introduced in the 19th century by institute president Francis Amasa Walker, while the department's Ph.D. program was introduced in 1941. It is one of the "big five" schools in the field along with the faculties at the University of Chicago, Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford (these schools have consistently ranked as the top five schools in the country since graduate school rankings have been produced by U.S. News & World Report). The American Economics Association estimates that MIT and these peers produce half of all tenure track professors at U.S. research universities.

Prominent faculty

• Paul Samuelson (1940–2009), Nobel Prize, 1970
• Franco Modigliani (1962–2003), Nobel Prize, 1985
• John Williamson (1967–1980), originator of the 'Washington Consensus'
• Robert Solow, Nobel Prize, 1987
• Stanley Fischer, (1977–1999), governor, Bank of Israel
• Robert F. Engle, Nobel Prize, 2003
• Daniel McFadden, Nobel Prize 2000
• George P. Shultz, Former Secretary of State, Secretary of Treasury, Secretary of Labour
• Myron S. Scholes Nobel prize in 1997 for the Black-Scholes equation
• Rudi Dornbusch
• Francesco Giavazzi

Alumni

• Lawrence Klein (Ph.D., 1944), Nobel Prize, 1980
• Robert Mundell (Ph.D., 1956), Nobel Prize, 1999
• George Akerlof (Ph.D., 1966), Nobel Prize 2001
• Joseph E. Stiglitz (Ph.D., 1967), Nobel Prize, 2001
• William Nordhaus (Ph.D., 1967), Council of Economic Advisers 1977 - 1979
• Robert C. Merton (Ph.D, 1970), Nobel Prize, 1997
• Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, (M.Sc. 1970), European Central Bank Executive Board 1998-2005, Former Italian Minister of Economy and Finance
• Martin Neil Baily (Ph.D., 1972), Council of Economic Advisers Chairman 1999 - 2001
• Lawrence Summers (B.S., 1975) Secretary of the Treasury, 1999–2001
• Mario Draghi (Ph.D., 1976) President of the European Central Bank 2011-, Governor of the Banca d'Italia, Chairman of the Financial Stability Forum
• Paul Krugman (Ph.D., 1977), Nobel Prize, 2008
• Lucas Papademos, (Ph.D. 1977), European Central Bank Vice President 2002 -
• Ben Bernanke, (Ph.D., 1979) Chairman of the Federal Reserve, 2006 -
• N. Gregory Mankiw (Ph.D., 1984), Council of Economic Advisers Chairman 2003 - 2005
• Andrew Samwick (Ph.D. 1993), Council of Economic Advisers Chief Economist 2003 - 2004
• Steven Levitt (Ph.D. 1994), John Bates Clark Medal, 2003; author Freakonomics
• Esther Duflo (Ph.D. 1999), John Bates Clark Medal, 2010; co-author Poor Economics

Nobel Laureates

Among the department's past and current faculty and alumni are several recipients of the Nobel Prize in Economics:

• Bengt Holmstrom, 2016
• Jean Tirole, 2014
• Robert J. Shiller, 2013
• Peter A. Diamond, 2010
• Oliver E. Williamson, 2009
• Paul Krugman, 2008
• Eric Maskin, 2007
• Edmund Phelps, 2006
• Robert J. Aumann, 2005
• Robert F. Engle, 2003
• George Akerlof and Joseph Stiglitz, 2001
• Daniel McFadden, 2000
• Robert Mundell, 1999
• Amartya Sen, 1998
• Robert C. Merton, 1997
• Robert Solow, 1987
• Franco Modigliani, 1985
• Lawrence Klein, 1980
• Paul Samuelson, 1970

Current Faculty

Professors

• Daron Acemoglu
• George-Marios Angeletos
• Joshua Angrist
• David Autor
• Abhijit Banerjee
• Olivier Blanchard [past Department Head]
• Ricardo J. Caballero [current Department Head]
• Victor Chernozhukov
• Peter A. Diamond [past Department Head]
• Esther Duflo
• Glenn Ellison
• Amy Finkelstein
• Robert S. Gibbons
• Michael Greenstone
• Jonathan Gruber
• Jeffrey Harris
• Jerry A. Hausman
• Bengt R. Holmström [past Department Head]
• Whitney K. Newey
• Michael J. Piore
• James M. Poterba [past Department Head]
• Drazen Prelec
• Nancy Rose
• Stephen Ross
• Richard L. Schmalensee
• Lester Thurow
• Robert M. Townsend
• Iván Werning
• William Wheaton
• Benjamin Olken
• Muhamet Yildiz

Associate Professors

• Guido Lorenzoni
• Stephen P. Ryan

Assistant Professors

• Dave Donaldson
• Panle Jia
• Mihai Manea
• Anna Mikusheva
• Parag Pathak
• Juuso Toikka
• Heidi Williams

Senior Lecturer

• Sara Fisher Ellison

Professors Emeriti

• Morris Adelman
• Sidney Alexander
• Robert L. Bishop [former Department Head, former Dean School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences]
• Richard S. Eckaus [past Department Head]
• Franklin M. Fisher
• Stanley Fischer [past Department Head]
• Paul Joskow [past Department Head]
• Jerome Rothenberg
• Paul Samuelson
• Abraham J. Seigel
• Robert Solow
• Peter Temin [past Department Head]

Affiliated Faculty

• Mathias Dewatripont
• Ernst Fehr
• Jean Tirole

Former Faculty

• Susan Athey (Ph.D., Stanford) John Bates Clark Medal, 2007
• E. Cary Brown (Ph.D., Harvard) Professor of Economics, Emeritus
• Evsey Domar (Ph.D., Harvard)
• Rudi Dornbusch (Ph.D., Chicago) Ford International Professor, International Economics
• Robert F. Engle (Ph.D., Cornell)
• Stanley Fischer (Ph.D., MIT)
• Charles P. Kindleberger (Ph.D., Columbia) Ford International Professor of Economics, Emeritus
• Edwin Kuh (Ph.D., Harvard)
• Paul Krugman (Ph.D., MIT) John Bates Clark Medal, 1991
• Eric Maskin (Ph.D., Harvard)
• Daniel McFadden (Ph.D., Minnesota)
• Franco Modigliani (D.Jur., Rome and D.Soc.Sci., New School of Research) Institute Professor Emeritus; Professor of Finance & Economics
• George P. Shultz (Ph.D., MIT)
• Hal Varian (Ph.D., Berkeley)

Notable alumni

• Lawrence R. Klein (Ph.D., 1944) John Bates Clark Medalist, 1959; President of the Econometric Society, 1960; President of the American Economic Association, 1977; Laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 1980
• George P. Shultz (Ph.D., 1949) Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 2004
• Mario Draghi (Ph.D., 1976) Governor of the Banca d'Italia, Chairman of the Financial Stability Forum, President of the European Central Bank
• Robert A. Mundell (Ph.D., 1956) Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 1996; Laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 1999
• Peter A. Diamond (Ph.D., 1963) President of the Econometric Society, 1991; President of the American Economic Association, 2003; Laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 2010
• Riccardo Faini, (PhD), Former Head of the Economic and Financial Analysis Service of the Italian Ministry of Treasury
• George A. Akerlof (Ph.D., 1966) Laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 2001; President of the American Economic Association, 2006
• Joseph E. Stiglitz (Ph.D., 1966) John Bates Clark Medalist, 1979; Laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 2001
• Jagdish N. Bhagwati (Ph.D., 1967) Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 2003
• Robert E. Hall (Ph.D., 1967) President of the American Economic Association, 2010
• William D. Nordhaus (Ph.D., 1967) Member of the Council of Economic Advisers, 1977–1979; Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 2004; President of the American Economic Association, 2014
• Avinash K. Dixit (Ph.D., 1968) President of the Econometric Society, 2001; President of the American Economic Association, 2008
• Roberto Perotti (Ph.D., 1991) Full Professor at Bocconi University; Former Associate Professor with tenure at Columbia University, 1991–2001
• Michael Rothschild, (Ph.D., 1968) Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 2005
• Stanley Fischer (Ph.D., 1969) Governor of the Bank of Israel; Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 2013
• Andrea Ichino (Ph.D., 1990) Full Professor at University of Bologna; Former Professor at European University Institute, 1997–2005
• Robert C. Merton (Ph.D., 1970) President of the American Finance Association, 1986; Laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 1997
• Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa (M.Sc., 1970) European Central Bank Executive Board, 1998–2005
• Jeremy J. Siegel (Ph.D., 1971) financial markets guru
• Martin Neil Baily (Ph.D., 1972) Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, 1999–2001
• Robert J. Shiller (Ph.D., 1972) Fellow of the American Finance Association, 2006; Laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 2013
• Paul R. Krugman (Ph.D., 1977) Member of the Council of Economic Advisers, 1982–1983; John Bates Clark Medalist, 1991; Laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 2008
• Lucas Papademos (Ph.D., 1977) Vice President of the European Central Bank, 2002-
• Ben S. Bernanke (Ph.D., 1979) Chairman of the Federal Reserve, 2006-2014
• Kenneth S. Rogoff (Ph.D., 1980) IMF Chief Economist
• Jean Tirole (Ph.D., 1981) President of the Econometric Society, 1998; President of the European Economic Association, 2001; Laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 2014
• N. Gregory Mankiw (Ph.D., 1984) Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, 2003–2005
• Andrei Shleifer (Ph.D., 1986) John Bates Clark Medalist, 1999
• Matthew Rabin (Ph.D., 1989) John Bates Clark Medalist, 2001
• Andrew Samwick (Ph.D., 1993) Member of the Council of Economic Advisers, 2003–2004
• Steven D. Levitt (Ph.D., 1994) John Bates Clark Medalist, 2003; co-author of Freakonomics
• Emmanuel Saez (Ph.D., 1999) John Bates Clark Medalist, 2009
• Esther Duflo (Ph.D., 1999) John Bates Clark Medalist, 2010
• Jonathan Levin (Ph.D., 1999) John Bates Clark Medalist, 2011
• Amy Finkelstein (Ph.D., 2001) John Bates Clark Medalist, 2012
• Alan S. Blinder (Ph.D., 1971) Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 2011
• Robert J. Gordon (Ph.D., 1967) Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 2014
• Ronald W. Jones (Ph.D., 1956) Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 2009

External links

• MIT Department of Economics website