University of Chicago economics professor and Nobel Laureate James Heckman joins Jon Hartley to discuss Heckman’s career as an economist, his Nobel Prize winning research, his research on the returns to early childhood interventions, the development of “The Heckman correction,” reduced form versus structural methods, and the history and current state of the Chicago School.
Recorded on October 24, 2026.
ABOUT THE GUEST
James J. Heckman is the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Chicago and director of its Center for the Economics of Human Development. His research explores inequality, social mobility, labor markets, and how families and education shape skills and opportunity.
Comparing evidence across countries, including the United States, Denmark, China, and Germany, he examines how policies, institutions, and family environments impact outcomes across generations. He won the 2000 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on the microeconometrics of diversity and heterogeneity and for establishing a sound causal basis for public policy evaluation. His work includes studies of early childhood programs in the United States and China, comparisons of social mobility in Denmark and the US, and research collaborations in the US, China, and Germany on the power of non-cognitive skills.
