Joshua Angrist

Joshua Angrist is an American Israeli-American economist renowned for his pioneering work in applied econometrics. He is a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and holds a joint appointment at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Alongside David Card and Guido Imbens, he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2021 for his methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships using natural experiments.

Early life and education

Joshua Angrist was born in Columbus, Ohio, and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He completed his undergraduate studies at Oberlin College, earning a Bachelor of Arts in economics. Following his graduation, he moved to Israel where he served in the Israel Defense Forces as a paratrooper. He later pursued graduate studies at Princeton University, where he earned a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Philosophy in economics under the supervision of noted labor economist Orley Ashenfelter. His doctoral dissertation focused on the economic consequences of military service, foreshadowing his later research interests.

Career and research

After completing his PhD, Angrist began his academic career at Harvard University before joining the faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He later moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has been a leading figure in the MIT Department of Economics. His research spans labor economics, education economics, and econometrics, often utilizing quasi-experimental designs to study policy-relevant questions. A significant portion of his work, conducted in collaboration with scholars like Alan Krueger and Victor Lavy, has examined the effects of school choice, class size, and teacher quality on student outcomes. He is also a co-founder and director of the MIT Blueprint Labs, a research center focused on education and social policy.

Methodology and contributions to econometrics

Angrist is best known for advancing the use of instrumental variables and natural experiments to establish causal inference in social science research. His seminal work with Alan Krueger on using quarter of birth as an instrument to estimate the returns to compulsory schooling became a classic example in the field. Alongside Guido Imbens, he formalized the local average treatment effect (LATE) framework, which provides precise conditions for interpreting estimates from instrumental variables. This framework, detailed in their influential series of papers and the textbook Mostly Harmless Econometrics co-authored with Jörn-Steffen Pischke, has become a cornerstone of modern applied microeconomics, influencing research in public finance, health economics, and development economics.

Awards and honors

In 2021, Joshua Angrist was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences jointly with David Card and Guido Imbens. He is also a recipient of the Frisch Medal, awarded by the Econometric Society for his applied econometrics paper on the effects of Vietnam War service. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric Society, and the Society of Labor Economists. In 2007, he received the IZA Prize in Labor Economics from the Institute of Labor Economics.

Selected publications

* Angrist, J. D. (1990). Lifetime Earnings and the Vietnam Era Draft Lottery: Evidence from Social Security Administrative Records. American Economic Review. * Angrist, J. D., & Krueger, A. B. (1991). Does Compulsory School Attendance Affect Schooling and Earnings? Quarterly Journal of Economics. * Angrist, J. D., & Imbens, G. W. (1994). Identification and Estimation of Local Average Treatment Effects. Econometrica. * Angrist, J. D., & Lavy, V. (1999). Using Maimonides' Rule to Estimate the Effect of Class Size on Scholastic Achievement. Quarterly Journal of Economics. * Angrist, J. D., & Pischke, J.-S. (2009). Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion. Princeton University Press.

Category:American economists Category:Israeli economists Category:Nobel laureates in Economics Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty Category:Hebrew University of Jerusalem faculty