James Heckman

James Joseph Heckman (born April 19, 1944) is an American economist and Nobel laureate who serves as the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago, where he is also a professor at the college, a professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, Director of the Center for the Economics of Human Development (CEHD), and co-director of Human Capital and Economic Opportunity (HCEO) Global Working Group. He is also a professor of law at the Law School, a senior research fellow at the American Bar Foundation, and a research associate at the NBER. He received the John Bates Clark Medal in 1983, and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2000, which he shared with Daniel McFadden. He is known principally for his pioneering work in econometrics and microeconomics.

Heckman is noted for his contributions to selection bias and self-selection in quantitative analysis in the social sciences, especially the Heckman correction, which earned him the Nobel Prize in Economics. He is also well known for his empirical research in labor economics and his scholarship on the efficacy of early childhood education programs. As of June 2024, according to RePEc, he is the third-most influential economist in the world.