Professor William T. Dickens
William T. Dickens, Ph.D. is
Distinguished Professor of Economics and Social Policy, Northeastern
University; Visiting Scholar, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston;
Non-resident Senior Fellow, Economic Studies, The Brookings Institution;
Co-Director of the European Central Bank's International Wage
Flexibility Project
— a collaborative effort involving Brookings, the New York Federal
Reserve Bank, the European Central Bank, and economists from 13 country
teams;
Board of Reviewers,
Industrial Relations; and
Consultant on labor, economics, and statistics.
Bill researches the malleability of cognitive ability; fiscal
effects of investment in early education; the relationship of inflation,
wage and unemployment; and economic development. He is currently
collaborating in using data on individual wage changes to measure the
extent, nature, causes and consequences of wage rigidity.
His previous positions include:
Consultant, New York Federal Reserve Bank (Sep 2005 - Aug 2008);
Director, National Community Development Policy Analysis Network
(Jan 1996 - Oct 2001); and
Senior Economist, President's Council of Economic Advisors
(Jul 1993 - Jun 1994).
Bill authored
An analysis of the nature of unemployment in Sri Lanka (NBER working
papers series),
coauthored the innovative Amazon download
Blinder baloney: today's scare talk of jobs outsourcing is grossly
exaggerated, and coedited
The Dynamics of Trade and Employment,
Labor and an Integrated Europe, and
Urban Problems and Community Development.
His papers include
A New Approach to Estimating the Natural Rate of
Unemployment,
The Fiscal Effects of Investing in High-Quality Preschool
Programs,
Cognitive Ability and IQ Gains,
The Interaction of Labor Markets and Inflation,
Black Americans Reduce the Racial IQ Gap: Evidence from
Standardization
Samples,
The Effects of Investing in Early Education on Economic
Growth,
The IQ Paradox: Still Resolved,
and
Have New Human Resource Management Practices Lowered the Sustainable
Unemployment Rate?
Bill earned his B.A. in Social Studies at Bard College in 1976 and his
Ph.D. in Economics at M.I.T. in 1981.