James Michael Poterba and Nancy Lin Rose, both professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have been named George and Karen McCown Distinguished Visiting Fellows at the Hoover Institution.
George and Karen McCown, whose generosity funds the fellowships, are longtime supporters of the Hoover Institution and Stanford University. George McCown is a member of the Hoover Board of Overseers and was a trustee of Stanford University from 1980 to 1985.
In 1984, George McCown cofounded and became managing director of McCown De Leeuw & Company, Menlo Park and New York City. Before that, he was chairman of Sequoia Corporation in Boise, Idaho, and Palo Alto, and president of Boise Cascade Home & Land Corporation. He served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force. He earned a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and an MBA degree from Harvard University.
Karen Stone McCown is founder and chairman of the board of trustees of Nueva Center for Learning in Hillsborough, California. She is the coauthor of Self—Science—the Subject Is Me. In 1981, she was named educator of the year by the California Association of the Gifted. She earned an undergraduate degree at Stanford University, and an M.A. degree at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
"The scholars of the Hoover Institution through their research, expertise, and writing influence the course of public policy in our nation in important ways," George McCown said. "Karen and I believe that Jim Poterba and Nancy Rose will contribute importantly to the Institution's output. We hope our support will encourage their efforts and lead to an ongoing relationship with them."
"The opportunity to have these two superb scholars in residence highly complements our institutional collegiality and scholarship," said Hoover director John Raisian. "We are indebted to George and Karen for their generosity."
James Poterba is the Mitsui Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since 1991, he also has been the director of the National Bureau of Economic Research Economics Research Program. His research focuses on the impact of taxation on household behavior, with particular emphasis on personal saving and portfolio choice.
He is the author of Fiscal Rules and State Borrowing Costs: Evidence from California and Other States (1999, Public Policy Institute of California).
Poterba earned his A.B. degree in economics from Harvard University, his M.Phil. in economics from Oxford, and a D.Phil. in economics from Oxford.
Nancy Lin Rose is also a professor of economics in the economics department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She specializes in the economics of regulation and industrial organization. Since 1990, she has directed the National Bureau of Economic Research Program on Industrial Organization.
She serves as an editor of professional journals, and her work has been published in a number of journals including the Journal of Political Economy, the Rand Journal of Economics, and the American Journal of Political Science.
Rose earned her A.B. degree in economics and government from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in economics from MIT.
