Peter Diamond Econ 490 fall 2017

Peter Diamond was born on April 29th, 1940 in New York City. He is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is known for his work in the fields of labor economics
and social security, and more recently for being a Nobel Laureate. Also, as a fun fact, he once served as a professor to recent Fed chairman Ben Bernake.

Over the course of his career, Diamond served on various economics and econ-adjacent boards and committees, including the Econometric Society, The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Social Insurance, and the American Economic Association.

In 2010, Peter Diamond was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics (alongside Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides). Their theory regarded how government policy can effect various market inefficiencies, specifically in the housing market. This was especially important as the effects of the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis were still being felt in America. He was nominated to the Federal Reserve's board of governors, but his nomination was controversially declined, with some members of the Senate banking committee claiming that he was inexperienced and that his theories could not be used to help the U.S. economy.

I had no clue who Peter Diamond was prior to this course. Despite his decently interesting personal history, I'm not sure how relevant his works will be to this class, given that this course is more of a micro-economic course and Diamond's work is focused on very macro topics like monetary policy and social security.


Sources:
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/2010/diamond-facts.html
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/oct/11/peter-diamond-nobel-prize-economics-2010-dale-mortensen-christopher-pissarides
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/2010/diamond-autobio.pdf

Comments

  1. Professor ArvanSeptember 11, 2017 at 8:40 AM

    You are right that we won't consider Diamond's work in our class. But you might find it interesting, that President Obama nominated Diamond for a position on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the Senate held up the nomination. He was never confirmed.

    ReplyDelete

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