Background
Behrman, Jere Richard was born on March 2, 1940 in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Son of Robert Wilbur and Mary Jane (Krull) Behrman.
Behrman, Jere Richard was born on March 2, 1940 in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Son of Robert Wilbur and Mary Jane (Krull) Behrman.
Student, Russian Language Institute, Indiana University, 1961. Bachelor summa cum laude, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 1962. Doctor of Philosophy in Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1966.
Assistant professor economics University Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1965-1968, associate professor, 1968-1971, professor, since 1971, chairman department economics, 1973-1979, research associate Center for Population Studies, since 1979, William P. Kenan, Junior professor economics, since 1983, associate director Lauder Institute Management and International Studies, 1983-1987. Co-director Center for Analysis Developing Economies, 1982-1995. Center for Household and Family Economics, War Cannon, professor economics, since 1982.
South Asian Studies Center, 1983-1995. Acting director Population Studies Center, 1992-1993, director, since 1998. Faculty associate National Science Foundation sponsored project, 1965-1968.
Visiting seminar coordinator University Catolica, Santiago, Chile, 1969. Visiting lecturer public and international affairs, Princeton University, 1973. Research associate National Bureau Economic Research, 1975-1979.
Honorary fellow department economics University Wisconsin, 1976-1977. Research associate Center Latin American Development Studies, Boston University, 1978-1979. Consultant economics department International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Washington, 1966-1969, Development Research Center, 1972-1973.
Research associate; consultant Massachusetts Institute of Technology-ODEPLAN-Ford project Office National Economic Planning, Santiago, 1968-1971. Consultant Wharton Economic Forecasting Associates, Inc., 1970-1971, United States Treasury, 1972, United States Treasury Brookings-SIECA-BID project on Center American Common Market, 1973-1978, United Nations Committee on Trade and Development World Commodity Models, 1974, Harvard Institute International Development, Center Bank Nicaragua Economic Modeling Project, 1975, ILPES-National Bureau of Economic Research-United Nations Project on Short Term Policy in Latin American Economics, 1975, Agency for International Development, 1976-1977, Department of Treasury, 1977, ECIEL, 1978, International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics, 1980-1987, United Nations, 1982, Botswana Ministry at Planning, 1982, Ncaer India, 1980, World Bank, since 1981, Thai Development Research Institute, 1987-1991, Indonesian Ministry of Planning, 1987-1988, International Rice Research Institute, 1987-1989, Malaysian project International Labor Organization, 1989, humanresource and development project International Labor Organization/ARTEP, 1989-1990, World Bank Mellon Brazilian education project, 1990, Pakistan rural education project International Food Policy Research Institute, 1989-1995, World Bank Productivity Project, 1990, HIID Bolivia project on social sectors, 1992-1994, World Bank project on Pakistan in 2010, Internat. International expert Unido Social Summit, 1994-1995, consultant UNPP human resources, 1995.
Principal investigator on National Science Foundation project, 1972-1975, 95—, Agency for International Development, 1977-1980, Ford-Rockefeller, 1977-1978, 16 project National Institutes of Health, since 1981, Population Council, 1982-1986, Pew Charitable Trust, since 1988. Visiting scholar National Academy of Sciences, American Council Learned Societies, Social Science Research Council, People's Republic of China, 1987-1988. Arnold Bernhard Distinguished visiting professor economics Williams College, 1990-1991.
Primary research interests in applied research related to numerous dimensions of economic development. Secondary research interests pertain to human capital, household behaviour, intergenerational mobility and inequality in United States. Early work in mid-1960s focussed upon market responsiveness in developing agriculture, with evidence presented of considerable responsiveness in contrast to widespread myth of noneconomic peasants.
Next major area of study concerned fiscal, macro and foreign sector policy within overall empirical models of Latin American economies, which pointed to some flexibility, but still limited range of policy options. Also wrote 1976 volume on Chile in Bhagwati-Krueger National Bureau of Economie Research, New York, New York, United States of America project on trade liberalisation in developing countries, which suggested some
substantial costs to inward orientation. Continued work on international primary commodity markets started in mid-1960s, with widely-cited 1977 quantitative evaluation of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development/ Integrated Commodity Programme that questioned many previous positive and negative claims about the programme.
Followed by major study integrating econometric models of international primary markets and developing economies that implied very little negative impact of market instabilities on developing economies.
Extensive study of family background using United States adult twin males in late 1970s suggested that standard estimates of returns to schooling were biassed upwards substantially and that genetic variance was quite important in the variance of socioeconomic success. At the same time and continuing into 1980s, a series of studies on women in Latin America suggested, inter alia, that the role of schooling had been misunderstood in the past due to the failure to control for family background and that integration of marriage with labour market changes insights regarding investment and migration. Also in early 1980s development of new intrahousehold models, the estimation of which suggested a parental inequality aversion so strong that parents do not follow a pure investment strategy, that parents favour girls in the United States though not in India, that parental age is critical, and that United States intergenerational mobility is great.
Also several studies of returns to schooling suggest that they are overstated in standard estimates by failure to control for school quality and by geographical aggregation bias.
Fellow Econometric Society. Member American Economic Association, Latin America Studies Association, Population Association American, Phi Beta Kappa.
Married Barbara Ann Ventresco. Children: Kennedy Robert, Julia Andrea, Emily Louise.