Robert Hall has been appointed the Robert and Carole McNeil Endowed Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
Simultaneously, Hall was named the Robert and Carole McNeil Professor in Economics at Stanford University.
This joint chair was established by Robert and Carole McNeil of Atherton, California.
"We are deeply appreciative to Robert and Carole McNeil for their significant gift to Stanford," said Hoover Institution director John Raisian. "Endowing a joint appointment between the Hoover Institution and the Economics Department is a first -- no gift has ever been so creative as to link Hoover in perpetuity with an academic department at Stanford. I hope it is a model for future gifts to Stanford. And the choice of Robert Hall as the first recipient of this chair sets a superb standard for the future."
Robert McNeil graduated from Stanford University in 1942 and earned an L.L.B. degree from Stanford Law School in 1949. A lifetime supporter of the university, he served on the Stanford Law School Board of Visitors from 1979 to 1982.
Mr. McNeil, a prominent figure in California real estate since the 1950s, founded his first real estate venture shortly after graduation from law school. In 1968 the Robert A. McNeil Corporation sponsored one of the first public real estate limited partnerships in the nation and in subsequent years purchased more than 300 multifamily and commercial properties.
Carole McNeil has been a real estate investor since the early 1970s. In 1978, she established Escrow Training Centers, California’s first accredited commercial training program for escrow officers and real estate agents, and in 1982, she founded Ivory & Associates, a San Francisco commercial real estate brokerage firm. In 1991, Mrs. McNeil spearheaded the acquisition of the diversified real estate portfolio of 130 multifamily commercial properties, which launched the San Francisco-based McNeil Capital Corporation. Both McNeils presently serve as cochairs of the McNeil Capital Corporation.
"We were impressed that eminent Hoover scholars are quoted in publications like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal," said Mr. McNeil. "Hoover is a fountain of knowledge making great contributions to the knowledge of society as a whole."
The McNeils were particularly attracted to the prospect of underwriting a joint appointment between the Hoover Institution and Stanford University. “It’s an innovative idea to bring Hoover together with the school of economics.” said Mrs. McNeil. "We thought this was an ingenious program, and we were honored to be asked to participate."
"I attended Stanford for eight years,' added Mr. McNeil, "and I believe Stanford gave me the education I needed to start in life. I feel I owe a gift to Stanford. It’s a matter of giving something back."
Robert E. Hall is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and professor of economics at Stanford University. He is an expert in monetary policy, inflation, taxation, and unemployment. His current research focuses on levels of activity in market economics and tax policies. He is also engaged in research on the economics of high technology.
He is an active proponent of the flat tax and is the coauthor, with Hoover senior fellow Alvin Rabushka, of The Flat Tax, 2d edition (Hoover Institution Press, 1995). The pair were recognized in Money magazine’s Hall of Fame (1992) for their contributions to financial innovation over the past 20 years.
all is also coauthor, with John Taylor, of Macroeconomics: Theory, Performance and Policy, 5th ed. (W.W. Norton, 1993) and, with Marc Lieberman, of Economics: Principles and Applications (South-Western, 1997).
Hall has advised a number of government agencies on national economic policy, including the Justice Department, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Board.
He also serves as director of the research program on economic fluctuations and growth of the National Bureau of Economic Research, an interuniversity research organization. He is the chairman of the bureau’s Committee on Business Cycle Dating, which maintains the semiofficial chronology of the U.S. business cycle.
Hall holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a professor of economics at MIT and University of California, Berkeley, before coming to Stanford in 1978.
Visit Dr. Hall's Web Site at www-hoover.stanford.edu/bios/hall.html or the Hoover Institution Web Site at www-hoover.stanford.edu
