Dear Board Colleagues and Staff Members -
I am very sorry to share the news that our colleague William
Spriggs, who joined the NBER board as the representative of the AFL-CIO
in 2014, passed away last night. He was a distinguished labor economist
whose research shed light on issues of equity in the labor market and in
society more generally. He was a professor in, and former chair of, the
Department of Economics at Howard University. Early in his career, Bill
also taught at North Carolina A&T State University, and Norfolk State
University.
Bill was an active participant in the public policy process. He was
the Chief Economist at the AFL-CIO, and he chaired the Economic Policy
Working Group at the OECD's Trade Union Advisory Committee. Between
2009 and 2012, he served as Assistant Secretary for the Office of Policy
at the US Department of Labor.
Bill received his undergraduate degree from Williams College and
his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He
was the former president of the National Economic Association. His many
honors included the National Academy of Social Insurance Robert M. Ball
Award and the NAACP Benjamin L. Hooks Keeper of the Flame Award. He was
an active contributor to the NBER, and always tried to attend the Labor
Studies meetings at Summer Institute. He will be deeply missed.
Jim Poterba
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Received on Wed Jun 07 2023 - 14:27:25 EDT
