Christopher Sims

Honorary Degree Recipient

Doctor of Science

College of Liberal Arts, September 26, 2013

Christopher Sims, Harold H. Helm Professor of Economics and Banking at Princeton University, is one of the two winners of the 2011 Nobel Prize laureate in Economic Sciences. He is considered to be one of the world’s foremost macroeconomists. Prior to joining the faculty at Princeton University, he had been at Harvard, the University of Minnesota, and Yale University. He served as a faculty member in the department of economics at the University of Minnesota for 20 years (1970-90). His tenure at the University of Minnesota overlapped with his Nobel Prize co-winner, Tom Sargent. His research has focused on the effects of unexpected changes in economic policy. The use of a particular form of time series analysis, called vector autoregression, helps us to understand the dynamic response of the economy to an impulse like a temporary policy change. For example, it allows us to track how an unexpected lowering of the interest rate, engineered by a central bank, can affect inflation and employment over time. His influence on his students is described as profound and that this influence not only reflects on his extraordinary intellectual talents but also his generosity of spirit and time with students. His publications are vast; however, his paper Macroeconomics and Reality (Econometrica, Fisher-Schultz Lecture) is considered to be his most influential paper in this area. He sits on numerous boards such as the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics (2007) and has been a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (2004, 1994-97), the International Monetary Fund (2003), the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia (2000-2003), and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta (most years since 1995). He is Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (1989-present), Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1988-present), Fellow, Minnesota Supercomputer Institute (1987-1991) and Fellow, Econometric Society (1975).

Biographies are as-of time of award presentation.