Biography

Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences 2000 for his development of theory and methods for analyzing selective samples.

Heckman received his B.A. in mathematics from Colorado College in 1965 and his Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University in 1971. He is currently the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago where he has served since 1973 and where he directs the Economics Research Center and the Center for Social Program Evaluation at the Harris School.

He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the American Bar Foundation, and is affiliated with University College London, Peking University and University College Dublin.

Heckman's work has been devoted to the development of a scientific basis for economic policy evaluation, with special emphasis on models of individuals and disaggregated groups, and to the problems and possibilities created by heterogeneity, diversity, and unobserved counterfactual states.

In the early 1990s, his pioneering research on the outcomes of people who obtain the GED certificate received national attention. His findings, which questioned the alleged benefits of the degree, spurred debates across the country on the merits of obtaining the certificate.

His recent research focuses on human development and lifecycle skill formation, with a special emphasis on the economics of early childhood.

His research has given policymakers important new insights into such areas as education, job-training programs, minimum-wage legislation, anti-discrimination law and civil rights.

Heckman has received numerous awards for his work, including the 2000 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and the 2005 Jacob Mincer Award for Lifetime Achievement in Labor Economics.