Two
Endowed Chairs in Economics
SAS
Dean Samuel Preston, announced two
new endowed chair appointments in the
Department of Economics.
Dr.
Andrew Postlewaite, professor of economics
and finance, has been appointed the
inaugural Harry P. Kamen Professor.
Dr.
Kenneth I. Wolpin, professor of economics,
has been appointed to the Walter H. and
Leonore C. Annenberg Professorship in the
Social Sciences.
Dr.
Postlewaite came to Penn in 1980 and chaired
the economics department from 1982 to 1987
and 1991 to 1996. He completed his B.A.
at Illinois Wesleyan University in 1965,
his M.S. at DePaul University in 1969, and
his Ph.D. at Northwestern University in
1974.
Before
coming to Penn, Dr. Postlewaite taught
at the University of Illinois. He has
served as visiting professor at Princeton
University, Stanford University, University
of California at San Diego, and Caltech.
He has been a research fellow at the
Center for Operations Research and
Econometrics in Louvain, Belgium, the
STICERD Visiting Fellow at the London
School of Economics in 1999, and has
been a visiting scholar at many international
universities and institutes, including
Tel Aviv University, University of
Bonn in Germany, European University
in Florence, Italy, and Chulalongkorn
University in Bangkok, Thailand.
A
fellow of the Econometric Society and a
recipient of numerous NSF grants and a Sloan
Foundation grant, Dr. Postlewaite's research
and teaching focus on microeconomic theory
and public economics.
Dr.
Postlewaite has published over 40 articles
in refereed journals. Recent papers include "Social
Arrangements and Economic Behavior," published
in Annales d' Economie et de Statistique in
2001, "Efficient Non-Contractible Investments
in Large Economies" (with Penn economics
professor George J. Mailath and Harold L.
Cole, professor of economics , UCLA) published
in Journal of Economic Theory in
2001, and "Informational Size and Incentive
Compatibility," (with Richard McLean,
professor of economics, Rutgers University)
published in Econometrica in 2002.
Forthcoming papers include "Ambiguity
in Election Games" for the Review
of Economic Design and "Information
Size and Efficient Auctions," to be
published in the Review of Economic Studies.
Dr.
Postlewaite is currently co-editor of Econometrica,
director of the National Bureau of Economic
Research, and a member of the Council of
the Econometric Society. He is former editor
of the International Economic Review.
Harry
P. Kamen, Esq., C'54, is retired chairman
of the board and CEO of Metropolitan Life
Insurance Company. He earned his BA in economics
at Penn and his J.D. from Harvard. A longtime
Penn supporter, Mr. Kamen has served as
an SAS Overseer since 1993 and established
the Harry P. and Barbara Kamen Endowed Scholarship
in 1998, which provides financial aid to
SAS undergraduates. The Chair was established
in 2001.
Dr.
Wolpin, the new Annenberg Professor, completed
his undergraduate work and his Ph.D. at
CUNY in 1967 and 1974, respectively. A specialist
in labor economics and economic demography,
Dr. Wolpin is chair of the economics department
and was director of Penn's Institute for
Economic Research from 1995 to 1999. He
is also a research associate with Penn's
Population Studies Center.
Dr. Wolpin
came to Penn in 1995 from NYU where he had
served as professor since 1992. He also
has held faculty positions at the University
of Minnesota, Yale, and Ohio State University,
where he directed the Center for Human Resource
Research and was the Principle Investigator
for the National Longitudinal Surveys, one
of the most widely used longitudinal surveys
in the social sciences. Dr. Wolpin began
his career as a high school math teacher
in New York City.
Dr.
Wolpin has pioneered new methods for the
study of labor markets, human capital, and
social policy. His research has won numerous
grants from the NIH and the NSF.
Dr.
Wolpin has authored nearly 50 articles in
major economics journals, including most
recently "Why Youths Drop Out of High
School: The Impact of Preferences, Opportunities,
and Abilities," "Sisters, Siblings,
and Mothers: The Effects of Teenage Childbearing
on Birth Outcomes," both published
in Econometrica, and "The Effect
of Parental Transfers and Borrowing Constraints
on Educational Attainment," published
in the International Economic Review.
He is currently collaborating with Dr. Petra
Todd, associate professor of economics here,
on an NSF funded project, Using Experimental
Data to Validate a Dynamic Behavioral Model
of Child Schooling and Fertility: Assessing
the Impact of a School Subsidy Program in
Mexico.
The
Hon. Leonore Annenberg is an emeritus trustee
of the University, as was her late husband,
the Hon. Walter H. Annenberg. As supporters
of Penn and patrons of education across
the U.S., they have endowed many chairs
in SAS and have made countless contributions
to Penn, including the creation of several
professorships and the founding of the Annenberg
School for Communication in 1958.
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