George Akerlof

George Akerlof
Name	George Akerlof
Caption	Akerlof in 2009
Birth date	17 June 1940
Birth place	New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
Nationality	American
Field	Economics
Institution	University of California, Berkeley, Georgetown University, London School of Economics
Alma mater	Yale University (B.A.), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D.)
Doctoral advisor	Robert Solow
Influences	John Maynard Keynes, Arthur Okun
Influenced	Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Krugman, Janet Yellen
Contributions	Information asymmetry, The Market for Lemons, Efficiency wage theory
Awards	Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001), John Bates Clark Medal (1980), Fellow of the Econometric Society
Spouse	Janet Yellen (m. 1978)

George Akerlof is an American economist and university professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001, sharing it with A. Michael Spence and Joseph E. Stiglitz for their analyses of markets with asymmetric information. His seminal paper, "The Market for 'Lemons'", fundamentally reshaped the understanding of information economics and has had profound impacts across numerous fields including finance, insurance, and labor economics.

Early life and education

He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Rosalie (née Hirschfelder) and Gösta Åkerlof, a chemist and professor at Yale University. He attended the Lawrenceville School before enrolling at Yale University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1962. He then pursued graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, completing his Ph.D. in economics in 1966 under the supervision of Robert Solow. His doctoral dissertation explored macroeconomic models of wage and price dynamics, foreshadowing his later work on labor markets.

Academic career

After receiving his doctorate, he began his academic career as an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He later held positions at the Indian Statistical Institute and served on the staff of the Council of Economic Advisers in Washington, D.C. under President Lyndon B. Johnson. He returned to academia with appointments at Harvard University and the London School of Economics before settling back at University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business. He has also been a visiting professor at institutions like Georgetown University and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Contributions to economics

His most famous contribution is the theory of information asymmetry, particularly the concept of adverse selection as illustrated in his 1970 paper "The Market for 'Lemons'". This work demonstrated how quality uncertainty in used car markets could lead to market failure, a principle applicable to health insurance, credit markets, and employment. He also made pioneering contributions to efficiency wage theory, explaining why firms may pay wages above the market-clearing level. His research, often with his wife Janet Yellen, has explored topics like behavioral macroeconomics, social norms, and identity economics, challenging the assumptions of rational choice theory.

Notable works and publications

His landmark paper, "The Market for 'Lemons': Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism", was published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics in 1970. Key books include *An Economic Theorist's Book of Tales* (1984), which collected essays on psychological and sociological factors in economics. With Rachel Kranton, he co-authored *Identity Economics: How Our Identities Shape Our Work, Wages, and Well-Being* (2010). Other significant publications, often co-authored with Janet Yellen, include "The Fair Wage-Effort Hypothesis and Unemployment" in the *Quarterly Journal of Economics* and "Animal Spirits" with Robert Shiller.

Awards and honors

He was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal in 1980 from the American Economic Association. The pinnacle of his recognition came in 2001 when he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association. He has also received honorary doctorates from several universities, including the University of Zurich and the University of Paris.

Personal life

He married fellow economist Janet Yellen in 1978; Yellen later served as Chair of the Federal Reserve and United States Secretary of the Treasury. They have one son, Robert Akerlof, who is also an economist. The family has lived primarily in Berkeley, California, and Washington, D.C.. He is known for his interdisciplinary approach, drawing insights from sociology, psychology, and anthropology into economic theory.

Category:American economists Category:Nobel laureates in Economics Category:University of California, Berkeley faculty