Rate My Professor James Heckman

James Heckman is the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor in Economics and the College at the University of Chicago, a position within the Business & Economics faculty. He earned a B.A. in Mathematics from Colorado College in 1965 (summa cum laude), an M.A. in Economics from Princeton University in 1968, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University in 1971. Heckman joined the University of Chicago Department of Economics in 1973 as an assistant professor, was promoted to associate professor in 1977 (tenured in 1974), full professor in 1985 as Henry Schultz Professor of Economics, and elevated to Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor in 1995. He also holds appointments as Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School since 2011 and affiliate professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, which he helped found. As Director of the Center for the Economics of Human Development since 2014, he leads research on human flourishing, skill formation, and interventions.

Heckman's research focuses on microeconometrics, causal methods for policy evaluation, human capital development, cognitive and noncognitive skills, early childhood interventions, inequality, social mobility, labor markets, and discrimination. His methodologies, including the Heckman correction for sample selection bias, have transformed empirical economics. Key publications include 'Sample Selection Bias as a Specification Error' (Econometrica, 1979), 'The Technology of Skill Formation' (American Economic Review, 2006, with F. Cunha), 'Estimating the Technology of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skill Formation' (Econometrica, 2010, with F. Cunha and S. Schennach), and books such as 'The Myth of Achievement Tests: The GED and the Role of Character in American Life' (University of Chicago Press, 2014, edited with J.E. Humphries and T. Kautz) and 'Giving Kids a Fair Chance' (MIT Press, 2012). He has authored over 350 articles and nine books. Major honors include the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (2000, shared for microeconometrics of diversity and heterogeneity), John Bates Clark Medal (1983), Frisch Medal (2014), Dan David Prize (2016), Jacob Mincer Award (2005), and Chinese Government Friendship Award (2019). Heckman is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Philosophical Society, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has received numerous honorary doctorates. His work influences public policy on education, training, and early interventions globally.