James J. Heckman, Ph.D.

James J. Heckman is the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Economics and the College, an Affiliate Professor in the Harris School, and the Director of the Center for Social Program Evaluation.

Heckman directs the Harris School's Center for Social Program Evaluation. Much of Heckman's work has focused on the impact of different social programs and the methodologies used to measure those program's effects. He has researched areas such as education; job training programs; minimum wage legislation; women's work effect and earnings; child care effects; anti- discrimination laws and civil rights. The effects of tax policy on schooling and training choices; the value of early interventions; and the formulation and estimation of general equilibrium models.

Heckman's investigation into the outcomes of individuals who earn a high school equivalency degree, or general educational development certificate (GED), found that men in their mid- to late-20s who obtained GEDs in the 1980s are not much more economically successful than high school dropouts. Heckman is currently completing a book exploring this research, which has sparked debate across the country on the merits of obtaining the GED certificate. Heckman is also finalizing a monograph that seeks to evaluate job training programs using data from the Job Training Partnership Act, the federal job training program implemented in 1983. He has also examined evidence on the effectiveness of government training compared to private training, and assessed the merits of differing research methodologies. His current research explores the effectiveness of tax policy.

Heckman is associate editor of Econometric Reviews and the Review of Economics and Statistics. He has served on the National Academy of Science Panel on the State of Black Americans, the Board of Overseers of the Michigan Panel Survey of Income Dynamics, and the National Academy's Science Panel on Statistical Assessments. He is a fellow of the Econometric Society and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Heckman has received numerous honors, including the John Bates Clark Medal from the American Economic Association. Heckman was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1992. He was President of the Midwest Economics Association in 1998. In 2000, Heckman was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his development of theory and methods for analyzing selective samples.