Elhanan Helpman

Infobox Scientist


image_width = 150px
name = Elhanan Helpman
birth_date = Birth date and age|1946|3|30|mf=y
birth_place = Jalal-Abad, Soviet Union
death_date =
death_place =
residence = flagicon|USA U.S.
nationality = flagicon|Israel Israeli
field = Economics
work_institution = Harvard University Tel Aviv University (Emeritus)
alma_mater = Harvard University (Ph.D.) Tel Aviv University (M.A.)
doctoral_advisor = Richard E.Caves Hendrik S. Houthakker
doctoral_students =
known_for = International trade
Political economy
Economic growth
prizes = Israel Prize (1991)
religion =
footnotes =

Elhanan Helpman (born March 30, 1946 in Jalal-Abad in the Fergana Valley, former Soviet Union) is an Israeli-American economist who works in the field of international trade, political economy and economic growth.

Biography

Born in the Soviet Union, the family moved to Poland were he attended a Jewish school. Later his family emigrated to Israel, where he completed elementary and high school. Initially he wanted to study engineering, but during his military service from 1963 to 1966 he decided to study economics. He graduated with a B.A. in economics and statistics from Tel Aviv University in 1969. He continued his education at Tel Aviv University and graduated with a M.A. in economics in 1971. He enrolled at Harvard University in 1971 and graduated with a Ph.D. in economics in 1974. He returned to Israel, where he was a lecturer and later a university professor from 1974 to 2004 at Tel Aviv University. Since 1997 he is also a professor of economics at Harvard University. [cite journal
author= Daniel Trefler
title = An Interview with Elhanan Helpman
journal = Macroeconomic Dynamics
year = 1999
volume = 3
issue = 4
pages = 571–601
doi = 10.1017/S1365100599013061
url= http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=51951&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S1365100599013061]

Among his awards is the Mahalanobis Memorial Medal by the Indian Econometric Society in 1990 and the Israel Prize in 1991. He was an active participant in Israeli policy debates, and was a member of the advisory board of the Bank of Israel, the Council for National Planning and the National Council for Research and Development. He is married to Ruth Helpman, who is a financial analyst. Together they have two daughters.

Research

His research focuses on international trade, economic growth, and the political economy of trade policy. He frequently collaborated with Gene Grossman. Elhanan Helpman is one of the founders of the new trade theory and endogenous growth theory which both emphasize economies of scale and imperfect competition. In the field of political economy his research focuses on how the interaction of lobby groups and politicians shapes trade policy. More recently his works study the relationship between international trade and the organization of firms.

Books

* "Market Structure and Foreign Trade", with Paul Krugman, MIT Press, 1985.
* "Innovation and Growth in the Global Economy", with Gene Grossman, MIT Press, 1991.
* "Special Interest Politics", with Gene Grossman, MIT Press, 2001.
* "The Mystery of Economic Growth", MIT Press, 2004.

References

External links

* [http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/helpman/helpman.html Homepage at Harvard University]
* [http://ideas.repec.org/f/phe205.html Homepage at RePEc]
* [http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/~dtrefler/papers/Trefler_Helpman_Macroeconomic_Dynamics_1999.pdf An Interview with Elhanan Helpman]