George Akerlof

Infobox Scientist
name = George Akerlof


image_size = 180px
birth_date = Birth date and age|1940|6|17|mf=y
birth_place = New Haven, Connecticut
nationality = United States
field = Economics
work_institution = Cal-Berkeley
alma_mater = MIT (Ph.D.)
Yale University (B.A.)
doctoral_advisor = Robert Solow
doctoral_students =
known_for = Information asymmetry
Efficiency wages
prizes = Nobel Prize in Economics (2001)

George Arthur Akerlof (born June 17, 1940) is an American economist and Koshland Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics (shared with Michael Spence and Joseph E. Stiglitz). His father was Swedish and his mother a Jewish/German-American. Fact|date=August 2008

Akerlof is perhaps best known for his article, "The Market for Lemons: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism", published in "Quarterly Journal of Economics" in 1970, in which he identified certain severe problems that afflict markets characterized by asymmetrical information.

In "Efficiency Wage Models of the Labor Market", Akerlof and coauthor Janet Yellen propose rationales for the efficiency wage hypothesis in which employers pay above the market-clearing wage, in contradiction to the conclusions of neoclassical economics.

In the late 1990s Akerlof's ideas attracted the attention of some on both sides of the debate over legal abortion. In articles appearing in The Quarterly Journal of Economics [George A. Akerlof, Janet Yellen, and Lawrence F Katz."An Analysis on Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing in the United States." "The Quarterly Journal of Economics" May 1996: 277-317.] , The Economic Journal [George A. Akerlof, "Men Without Children," "Economic Journal" March 1998: 287-309.] , and other forums Akerlof described a phenomenon that he labeled "Reproductive Technology Shock". He contended that the new technologies that had helped to spawn the late twentieth century sexual revolution, modern contraceptives and legal abortion, had not only failed to suppress the incidence of out-of-wedlock childbearing, they had actually worked to increase it. According to Akerlof these technologies had largely transformed the old paradigm of socio-sexual assumptions, expectations, and behaviors in ways that were especially disadvantageous to women who did not use them. For example, the availability of legal abortion now allowed men to view their offspring as the deliberate product of female choice rather than as the chance product of sexual intercourse. Thus it encouraged biological fathers not only to reject any supposed obligation to marry the mother, but to reject the very idea of paternal obligation.

While Akerlof did not recommend legal restrictions on either abortion or the availability of contraceptives, his analysis seemed to lend support to those who did. Thus, a scholar strongly associated with liberal and Democratic-leaning policy positions, has been approvingly cited by conservative and Republican-leaning analysts and commentators. [ [http://www.uexpress.com/maggiegallagher/?uc_full_date=20030121 "Failed Promises of Abortion"] ] [ [http://www.nfpoutreach.org/library/facts_life-marriage.htm "The Facts of Life & Marriage"] ]

In his 2007 presidential Address to the American Economic Association, Akerlof proposed "natural norms" that decision makers have for how they "should" behave. In this lecture Akerlof proposed a new agenda for macroeconomics with inclusion of those norms. [ [http://www.aeaweb.org/annual_mtg_papers/2007/0106_1640_0101.pdf "The Missing Motivation in Macroeconomics"] ]

Akerlof graduated from the Lawrenceville School and received his
Bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1962, and his Ph.D. from MIT in 1966 and has taught at the London School of Economics. His maternal great-grandfather was born in Oakland, California and was an alumnus of UC Berkeley (class of 1873). His maternal grandfather was also a Berkeley alumnus. His wife Janet Yellen is president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and a professor of economics at UC Berkeley and served on President Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors. [http://www.epsusa.org/main/trustees.htm] [http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/EOP/CEA/html/yellen.html]

He is a trustee of the Economists for Peace and Security, and co-director of the "Social Interactions, Identity and Well-Being" program at CIFAR. [http://www2.cifar.ca/]

Bibliography

* Akerlof, George, and Janet Yellen. 1986. Efficiency Wage Models of the Labor Market. Orlando, Fla.: Academic Press.
* Akerlof, George. "Thoughts on global warming." chinadialogue (2006). 14 July 2008. http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/143-Thoughts-on-global-warming

References

External links

* [http://www.nobel.se/economics/laureates/2001/akerlof-autobio.html Autobiography on Nobel E-museum]
* [http://emlab.berkeley.edu/users/akerlof/ Akerlof's Berkeley webpage]
* [http://ideas.repec.org/e/pak7.html Akerlof publications]
* [http://ideas.repec.org/e/pak7.html IDEAS/RePEc]
* [http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/02/12_akerlof.shtml Akerlof's criticism of Bush]
* [http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0729-06.htm Akerlof slams Bush government]
* [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9384690/George-A-Akerlof Akerlof biography]

Persondata
NAME= Akerlof, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Economist
DATE OF BIRTH= June 17, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH= New Haven, Connecticut
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=