James Heckman

James Heckman is a Nobel Prize-winning economist and professor at the University of Chicago. His research focuses on labor economics, human capital, early childhood interventions, and econometrics.

Economic Models Must Explain the Choices Behind the Data

Nobel laureate James Heckman argues that economic research should explain how choices and environments produce the outcomes measured in data, not stop at a statistical estimate or experiment. In a conversation with Jon Hartley, the University of Chicago economist applies that standard to early-childhood investment, labor-market methods and the Chicago School’s intellectual culture. His central claim is that skills develop over time and that empirical findings need an account of the mechanisms behind them.

Hoover InstitutionNov 12, 202623 min read