Joshua Angrist

Joshua David Angrist (born September 18, 1960^[1]) is an Israeli American economist. He is Ford Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^[2] Angrist has taught at the university level since 1989. He is known for his use of quasi-experimental research designs (such as instrumental variables) to study the effects of public policies and changes in economic or social circumstances. Angrist has also made contributions in theoretical econometrics. He co-founded and serves as a director of the School Effectiveness & Inequality Initiative based within the MIT Department of Economics.^[3] The center's work focuses on the economics of education, issues surrounding domestic poverty, and the connections between human capital and the American income distribution.

Biography

Born in Columbus, Ohio and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Angrist attended Oberlin College, where he received his B.A. in economics in 1982. He lived in Israel from 1982 until 1985. Angrist received his Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University in 1989. His doctoral dissertation, "Econometric Analysis of the Vietnam Era Draft Lottery," was supervised by Orley Ashenfelter and later published in parts in the American Economic Review.^[4] Angrist was an assistant professor at Harvard University from 1989 until 1991, when he returned to Israel as a senior lecturer at Hebrew University.^[5] Angrist holds dual US-Israeli citizenship.^[6]

Since 1996 Angrist has been a faculty member in the Department of Economics at MIT, where he teaches econometrics and labor economics. He lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Affiliations and honors

In addition to teaching at MIT, Angrist is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).^[6] He is also a fellow of the Econometric Society. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006.^[7] In 2007 Angrist received an honorary doctorate in Economics from the University of St. Gallen.^[8] He is the recipient of the 2011 John von Neumann Award given annually by the Rajk László College for Advanced Studies in Budapest.

Publications

In 2009 Angrist published Mostly Harmless Econometrics, co-authored with Jörn-Steffen Pischke. This book explores econometric tools used by empirical researchers.^[9] In 2014, Angrist and Pischke released Mastering 'Metrics: The Path from Cause to Effect, targeted at undergraduate econometrics students. Angrist has authored and coauthored dozens of scientific papers and reports.

See also

• Maimonides' Rule

References

External links

• http://econ-www.mit.edu/faculty/angrist/index.htm
• http://www.nber.org/people/joshua_angrist
• http://www.iza.org/index_html?lang=en&mainframe=http%3A//www.iza.org/iza/en/webcontent/personnel/photos/index_html%3Fkey%3D48&topSelect=personnel&subSelect=fellows