Mortensen grew up in Oregon and received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics from Willamette University of Salem, Oregon. He earned his ph.D. in Economics from Carnegie Mellon University of Pittsburgh. He has been with Northwestern University since 1965, becoming a full professor in 1975.
Mortensen was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economics, along with Peter Diamond (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Christopher Pissarides (London School of Economics and Political Science). They created a new way to analysis markets, called search theory. This search theory, called the DMP model after its creators, explains the friction in situations where people are looking for employment and firms are looking for people to employ. This theory changed the way that economists and policymakers view labor markets. Colleagues credit Mortensen with a key role in the work done to understand changes in unemployment during Business cycles. The search theory has not only advanced thinking about the labor market but has also been applied to other fields.
I had never heard of Dale Mortensen prior to taking Econ 490. Mortensen's contributions to the field of economics will definitely play a part in our learning this semester, as his analysis of frictions in labor markets can advance our understanding of the motivations of organizations.
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ReplyDeleteI mistakenly wrote my comment under the wrong log in so deleted it above and put it here instead.
DeleteMortensen was one of my favorite professors when I was a graduate student at NU. He taught a course on micro foundations of macro that might sound completely outside of what our course is about, but we will use several of the ideas I was first exposed to there. He was also on my dissertation committee.