Benjamin Jones (economist)

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Benjamin Jones
Born1972 (age 51–52)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materPrinceton University
Oxford University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Occupation(s)Economist, researcher, academic
TitleGordon and Llura Gund Family Professor in Entrepreneurship
Spouse
​
(m. 2000)​
Academic career
Doctoral advisor Abhijit Banerjee
Sendhil Mullainathan
Daron Acemoglu

Benjamin Felt Jones (born 1972) [1] is an American economist and professor at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. Jones's research is mainly focused on innovation and economic development. He has worked as an economic advisor in the U.S. Treasury and the White House. [2]

Contents

Education and early career

Jones graduated from Princeton University in 1995 with a B.S.E in Aerospace Engineering. He received there the Pyne Prize. [3] Jones was then a Rhodes Scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford University, [4] receiving an M.Phil in Economics in 1997. In 1996, he taught at the Kazakhstan Institute for Management and Economic Progress before returning to the United States. [5]

From 1997 to 1998, Jones worked as Special Assistant to Lawrence Summers at the U.S. Department of Treasury. Jones received a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT in 2003, studying under doctoral advisors Daron Acemoglu, Abhijit Banerjee, and Sendhil Mullainathan. [6]

Career

After completing his Ph.D., Jones joined the Kellogg School of Management, becoming the Gordon and Llura Gund Family Professor in Entrepreneurship in 2014. He has been a courtesy member of Northwestern University’s political science department since 2005 and affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research since 2005. In 2013, he was appointed as Faculty Director of Kellogg Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative. [5] He is also affiliated with the Brookings Institution. [7]

Jones served as the Senior Economist for Macroeconomics at the White House Council of Economic Advisers during 2010 and 2011. [5]

Research and work

In the beginning of his career, Jones's research was focused on innovation, national leadership, and economic growth. Towards the late 2000s, his research expanded to consider how factors like climate and education impact the wealth and poverty of nations. The relationship between age and breakthrough innovations is another recurring topic in his research. [8] [9]

Burden of knowledge

In 2005, in a paper entitled 'The Burden of Knowledge and the 'Death of the Renaissance Man': Is Innovation Getting Harder?', Jones presented the Burden of Knowledge theory. [10] This theory considers what happens if the advance of scientific and technological knowledge imposes an increasing educational burden on successive generations of innovators. [11] This theory has been used to explain numerous shifts in the nature of innovation, including the rising age at which scientists and inventors make major contributions, rising specialization and teamwork in science and invention, and the increasing difficulty of advancing productivity growth in the economy. [12] [13]

Impact of climate on economic development

Another strand of Jones's research deals with the relationship between temperature and economic development (and the direction of the relationship's causality). In this research, together with Benjamin Olken and Melissa Dell, Jones found that higher temperatures severely reduce economic growth in developing countries, [14] lowering both agricultural and industrial output and provoking political instability, thus overall suggesting large negative impacts of higher temperatures on developing countries. These conclusions have been challenged as relying on "an untenable method of classifying countries by income." [15] Furthermore, in other work, Dell, Jones and Olken also found that a large part of the strongly negative impact of high temperatures on income may be offset by adaptation in the long run. These and other results are summarized and discussed in these authors' highly cited review of the economics of climate change, What Do We Learn from the Weather? [16]

Human capital and economic development

Jones's research has also focused on the role of human capital in explaining the wealth and poverty of nations. His work has disrupted a prior consensus, where researchers had concluded that human capital was of minor importance, and shown instead that human capital differences may explain several phenomena in world economy, including large portions of the vast gap in per-capita income between rich and poor countries. [17]

Personal life

Jones married lawyer Juliet Sorensen on August 19, 2000. [18]

Awards

Selected publications

Books

Articles

Related Research Articles

Human capital or human assets is a concept used by economists to designate personal attributes considered useful in the production process. It encompasses employee knowledge, skills, know-how, good health, and education. Human capital has a substantial impact on individual earnings. Research indicates that human capital investments have high economic returns throughout childhood and young adulthood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economic growth</span> Measure of increase in market value of goods

Economic growth can be defined as the increase or improvement in the inflation-adjusted market value of the goods and services produced by an economy in a financial year. Statisticians conventionally measure such growth as the percent rate of increase in the real and nominal gross domestic product (GDP).

This aims to be a complete article list of economics topics:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uneconomic growth</span> Economic growth that reflects or creates a decline in the quality of life

Uneconomic growth is economic growth that reflects or creates a decline in the quality of life. The concept is used in human development theory, welfare theory, and ecological economics. It is usually attributed to ecological economist Herman Daly, though other theorists may also be credited for the incipient idea, According to Daly, "uneconomic growth occurs when increases in production come at an expense in resources and well-being that is worth more than the items made." The cost, or decline in well-being, associated with extended economic growth is argued to arise as a result of "the social and environmental sacrifices made necessary by that growing encroachment on the eco-system."

Development economics is a branch of economics that deals with economic aspects of the development process in low- and middle- income countries. Its focus is not only on methods of promoting economic development, economic growth and structural change but also on improving the potential for the mass of the population, for example, through health, education and workplace conditions, whether through public or private channels.

The knowledge economy, or knowledge-based economy, is an economic system in which the production of goods and services is based principally on knowledge-intensive activities that contribute to advancement in technical and scientific innovation. The key element of value is the greater dependence on human capital and intellectual property as the source of innovative ideas, information and practices. Organisations are required to capitalise on this "knowledge" in their production to stimulate and deepen the business development process. There is less reliance on physical input and natural resources. A knowledge-based economy relies on the crucial role of intangible assets within the organisations' settings in facilitating modern economic growth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Kuznets</span> American economist and statistician (1901–1984)

Simon Smith Kuznets was a Russian-born American economist and statistician who received the 1971 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences "for his empirically founded interpretation of economic growth which has led to new and deepened insight into the economic and social structure and process of development."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steady-state economy</span> Constant capital and population size

A steady-state economy is an economy made up of a constant stock of physical wealth (capital) and a constant population size. In effect, such an economy does not grow in the course of time. The term usually refers to the national economy of a particular country, but it is also applicable to the economic system of a city, a region, or the entire world. Early in the history of economic thought, classical economist Adam Smith of the 18th century developed the concept of a stationary state of an economy: Smith believed that any national economy in the world would sooner or later settle in a final state of stationarity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dale W. Jorgenson</span> American economist (1933–2022)

Dale Weldeau Jorgenson was an American economist who served as the Samuel W. Morris University Professor at Harvard University. An influential econometric scholar, he was famed for his work on the relationship between productivity and economic growth, the economics of climate change, and the intersection between economics and statistics. Described as a "master" of his field, he received the John Bates Clark Medal in 1971, and was described as a worthy contender for the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Innovation economics is new, and growing field of economic theory and applied/experimental economics that emphasizes innovation and entrepreneurship. It comprises both the application of any type of innovations, especially technological, but not only, into economic use. In classical economics this is the application of customer new technology into economic use; but also it could refer to the field of innovation and experimental economics that refers the new economic science developments that may be considered innovative. In his 1942 book Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, economist Joseph Schumpeter introduced the notion of an innovation economy. He argued that evolving institutions, entrepreneurs and technological changes were at the heart of economic growth. However, it is only in recent years that "innovation economy," grounded in Schumpeter's ideas, has become a mainstream concept".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of economics</span>

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to economics:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barcelona Development Agenda</span> Response to Washington Consensus model

The Barcelona Development Agenda is a statement of development principles formulated as a response to the prevailing Washington Consensus development model. Resulting from the collaboration of economists from both developing and developed countries at the 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures in Barcelona, Spain, the Barcelona Development Agenda outlines seven lessons learned from previous policy failures and successes, and presents them as priorities for future economic reforms. The principles emphasize a balance of market and government economic roles, flexible economic tools, and an increased role for sustainability and equity in governance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robin Burgess</span> British economist

Robin Burgess is a British economist who is Professor of Economics, Co-founder and Director of the International Growth Centre, as well as Co-Founder and Director of the Economics of Energy and the Environment (EEE) program at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Benjamin A. Olken is an American economist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Olken is one of the directors of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), a research centre specializing on the use of randomized evaluations for the purpose of studying poverty alleviation. His research focuses on the political economy of developing countries, especially regarding the role of corruption and the impact of interventions addressing corruption.

Melissa Dell is an American economist who is the Andrew E. Furer Professor of Economics at Harvard University. Her research interests include development economics, political economy, and economic history.

Carol A. Corrado is an American economist who was the former chief of industrial output at the Federal Reserve Board and currently serves as a senior advisor and research director in economics on The Conference Board. She serves as a member of the executive committee for the National Bureau of Economic Research's (NBER) conference on research on income and wealth. She is a senior policy scholar at Georgetown University McDonough School of Business Centre for Business and Public Policy where she focuses on economics of growth and innovation as well as fiscal and monetary policies. In addition to these positions, Corrado is involved with the American Statistical Association as well as the Technical Advisory Committee of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. With the American Statistical Association Corrado serves as the chair-elect of Business and Economics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malaysia and the World Bank</span>

Malaysia's independence in 1957 was a catalyst for growth. As the nation took charge of managing its own affairs, it continued to develop the goals and means necessary for a financial structure conducive to the economic growth observed today. Critical to the transition of Malaysia from a low-income country to one of high-income status has been the expansion of its economy. From a commodity and agricultural-based economy, the Southeast Asian nation is transitioning to a leading exporter of more complex goods. As the nation opens up to trade and investment, the World Bank and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Development Association (IDA) continue to assist with its development.

Brian Uzzi is an American sociologist and the Richard L. Thomas Professor of Leadership at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He is known for his work on problems in the fields of sociology, network science, the science of science, and complex systems. He is the co-director of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO), is a professor of sociology, and a professor of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences at the McCormick School of Engineering. Since 2019, Uzzi has written a column for Forbes on Leadership and artificial intelligence.

The Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD) is a professional association founded in 2002 to encourage research and scholarship in development economics. The association organizes conferences and seminars, disseminates a working paper series, and maintains a network of fellows and affiliates. The current presidents are Pascaline Dupas and Imran Rasul.

The idea of Burden of Knowledge has been around for a long time.

References

  1. ↑ "Jones, Benjamin F." LC Name Authority File. Library of Congress. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
  2. ↑ "Benjamin F. Jones".
  3. ↑ "Princeton Names Winners of Pyne Prize".
  4. ↑ "Rhodes Scholar Database".
  5. 1 2 3 "Benjamin F. Jones".
  6. ↑ "Do Leaders Matter? National Leadership And Growth Since World War II" (PDF).
  7. ↑ "Brookings Institution".
  8. ↑ Wessel, David (5 September 2012). "The 'Eureka' Moments Happen Later". Wall Street Journal.
  9. ↑ "You're twice as likely to found a successful startup when you're 40 than when you're 25,"". 15 June 2018.
  10. ↑ Jones, Benjamin F. (2009). "The Burden of Knowledge and the "Death of the Renaissance Man": Is Innovation Getting Harder?". Review of Economic Studies. 76: 283–317. doi:10.1111/j.1467-937X.2008.00531.x. S2CID   11439534.
  11. ↑ "The Increasing Dominance of Teams in Production of Knowledge".
  12. ↑ "Has the Ideas Machine Broken Down?". The Economist. 12 January 2013.
  13. ↑ "Is the Expansion of Knowledge Endangering Genius?". The Atlantic . 12 December 2011.
  14. ↑ "Temperature Shocks and Economic Growth: Evidence from the Last Half Century" (PDF).
  15. ↑ David Barker (September 2023). "Temperature Shocks and Economic Growth: Comment on Dell, Jones, and Olken" (PDF). Econ Journal Watch . 20 (2): 235. ISSN   1933-527X . Retrieved 13 October 2023. They use an untenable method of classifying countries by income; using more reasonable methods I find that their results disappear
  16. ↑ Dell, Melissa; Jones, Benjamin F.; Olken, Benjamin A. (2014). "What Do We Learn from the Weather? The New Climate-Economy Literature". Journal of Economic Literature. 52 (3): 740–798. doi:10.1257/jel.52.3.740. hdl: 1721.1/96154 . S2CID   15699542.
  17. ↑ Jones, Benjamin F. (2014). "The Human Capital Stock: A Generalized Approach" (PDF). American Economic Review. 104 (11): 3752–3777. doi:10.1257/aer.104.11.3752. S2CID   6260340.
  18. ↑ "WEDDINGS; Juliet Sorensen, Benjamin Jones". The New York Times. August 20, 2000. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
  19. ↑ "Age and great invention".
  20. ↑ "Alfred P. Sloan Foundation - 2015 Annual Report" (PDF).
  21. ↑ "Dynamics, Predictability, and Uncertainty of Scientific Discovery and Advance".
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