Heckman, James Joseph (1944-…), is an American economist and teacher who won the 2000 Nobel Prize for economic science. Heckman shared the award with the American economist Daniel L. McFadden for their achievements in the statistical analysis of individual and family lifestyle decisions (see McFadden, Daniel Little ). Some of Heckman’s studies explored how certain groups of people decide when to work and how much to work. He investigated the ways in which education affects wages, and he suggested models for government-run employment programs.
Heckman is a professor of economics at the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1973. He has also taught at Yale University. Throughout his career, Heckman has contributed greatly to the field of econometrics, a branch of economics that treats economic relationships mathematically. Heckman has studied labor markets and the effects of social programs on the economy and on society. He helped edit Longitudinal Analysis of Labor Market Data (1985), and he has written many journal articles covering theories and applications of econometrics.
Heckman was born in Chicago. He received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Colorado College in 1965. He earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. degree in economics from Princeton University in 1968 and 1971, respectively.
