James Joseph Heckman

Background

HECKMAN, James J. was born in 1944 in Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.

Education

Bachelor of Arts(Mathematics) Colorado College, 1965. Master of Arts, Doctor of Philosophy Princeton University, 1968,

1971.

Career

Assistant Professor, Association Professor, Columbia University, 1970-1972,1972^1. Association Professor, University Chicago, 1974-1980. Visiting Professor, University of California, Los Angeles, Calif., United States of America, 1976, University Wisconsin, 1977, London School of Economies and Political Science, London, United Kingdom, 1977, Yale University, 1984.

Professor of Economics, University Chicago, since 1980. Co-Editor, Journal of Political Economy, since 1981. American Editor, Review of Economic Studies, 1982-1985.

Association Editor, J Labor E, since 1983.

Achievements

• Mr. Heckman is the author of Longitudinal Analysis of Labor Market Data, Law and Employment: Lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean, Inequality in America: What Role for Human Capital Policies?, and numerous articles on labor, education, and civil-rights policies. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the John Bates Clark Medal in 1983, the Jacob Mincer Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2005, and the Ulysses Medal from the University College Dublin in 2006. In 2000, he won the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. He is also a member of many academic and professional socieities, including the National Academy of Sciences, the International Statistical Institute, the American Statistical Association, the Society of Labor Economics, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Academy of Education. In addition, he has been the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and professorships.

Works

• book

  • American Government, Essentials Edition

    (Acclaimed for the scholarship of its prominent authors an...)

  • American Government: Institutions and Policies, 14th Edition

    (Acclaimed for the scholarship of its prominent authors an...)

  • American Government: Institutions and Policies

    (Acclaimed for the scholarship of its prominent authors an...)

  • American Government: Brief Version

    (This popular brief edition text maintains the framework o...)

  • Cengage Advantage Books: American Government and Politics Today, Brief Edition, 2014-2015 (with CourseMate Printed Access Card)

    (New features, up-to-date political news and analysis, and...)

  • Amer. Government -AP Edition

    (Same or next day processing! Good physical shape, light t...)

  • Econometric mixture models and more general models for unobservables in duration analysis (NBER technical working paper series)
  • American Government, 2014 Elections and Updates Edition (12th Edition)
  • Essentials of American Government: Roots and Reform, 2012 Election Edition (11th Edition)
  • American Government: Roots and Reform, 2012 Election Edition (12th Edition)
  • American Government: Power and Purpose (Thirteenth Core Edition (without policy chapters))
  • American Government: Power and Purpose (Brief Thirteenth Edition)

Views

I have attempted to explore the consequences of sample design on empirical estimates obtained from those samples. Sample selection and self-selection are pervasive phenomena that critically affect the interpretation placed on social statistics. I have helped direct the attention of the profession to this topic.

In addition, I have explored the consequences of failing to account for unobservables

in dynamic models of labour supply and fertility. Such unobservables — termed ‘heterogeneity’ — seriously affect the inferences one can draw from dynamic data. The hypothesis that people are different can account for a wide variety of empirical regularities in social science.

Economic models that rationalise statistical artefacts are a pernicious waste of time. My principal goal — but perhaps not my principal contribution—is to provide a factual basis for economics, to free it of metaphysical or political bias and to sort out the empirically testable from the huge corpus of economics that is not empirically founded. All of my work is directed toward producing testable economic models and to separating the knowable (in an empirical source) from the conjecture, however fashionable or widely held.

By placing economics on an empirical basis and eliminating the subjective element which currently dominates the field, it may be possible to make progression in a subject that is widely perceived to be discredited because it has so little empirical content and cares so little about developing it.

Membership

Guggenheim Foundation Fellow, 1978-1979; Fellow, Econometric Society, 1980; Fellow, Center Advanced Studies Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California 1982; John Bates Clark Medal, American Economic Association 1983.

• Fellow: American Association for the Advancement of Science

• Econometric Society

• American Academy Arts. & Scis.

• Society Labor Economics (Jacob Mincer award for Lifetime Achievement 2005)

• American Statistical Association (Chicago chapter Statistician of Year 2002)

• International Statistical Institute; National Academy of Sciences

• American Economic Association (John Bates Clark medal 1983)

• American Philosophical Society

• National Academy Education

• Irish Economic Association (life)

• Phi Beta Kappa

Connections

Father:

John Jacob Heckman

Mother:

Bernice Irene Medley Heckman