Holmstrom, et al. by Mitra L. '07

On Friday, I attended a Undergraduate Economics Association(UEA)-sponsored lunch with Professor Bengt Holmstrom, the head of the MIT Economics Department. Not too shabby.

Professor Holmstrom spoke about different routes to take in life, and how we should do things that we like, not necessarily things that we are expected to do, etc…. and then when he spoke about research he said, “The one thing all the sciences have in common is that there are still no answers to the most basic questions. Physics, biology, economics — they all wonder the same things they wondered 200 years ago.” Heh.

While googling Holmstrom for this entry, I found this juicy bit of information:

He’s on the Board of Directors for Nokia! Nice.

Professor Holmstrom’s economic research focuses on incentives and the organization of firms, inspired by his work straight out of undergrad when he was in Finland.

Anyway, his term as department head ends this summer, when he will be replaced by Professor James Poterba, pictured below:

You may think it’s repetitive for me to post two pictures from C-SPAN (see Spam?)… but you are so wrong.

Poterba serves on the bipartisan President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform. He is married to the economist Nancy Rose, who is my 14.20: Industrial Organization professor.

Their children will probably grow up to run the world.

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