Dear Affiliates of the Programs on Children, Education, and Labor Studies -
I am sorry to share the news that Rebecca Blank, an NBER affiliate for
nearly twenty-five years, passed away last Friday. She was a labor
economist who made important contributions to the study of poverty
dynamics, the social safety net, and gender disparities in the labor
market. She was also a dedicated public servant: a member of the
Council of Economic Advisers in the late 1990s, and the Under Secretary,
Deputy Secretary, and Acting Secretary of Commerce between 2009 and
2013. Blank became an NBER affiliate in 1985, and stepped down when she
was appointed Under Secretary.
Blank was also a very successful acdemic administrator who directed the
Joint Center for Poverty Research at Northwestern, served as the Joan
and Sanford Weill Dean of the Gerald Ford School of Policy at the
University of Michigan (1999-2008), and was the Chancellor of the
University of Wisconsin-Madison from 2013 until 2022.
Blank received her undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota
and her Ph.D. from MIT. Over the course of her career, she taught at
Princeton, Northwestern, Michigan, and Wisconsin. She served as vice
president of the American Economic Association in 2007. A more detailed
memorial statement may be found at
https://rebeccablank.wisc.edu/
Blank was an active contributor to the economics research community, to
the higher education sector, and to public policy. She will be deeply
missed.
Jim Poterba
Received on Thu Feb 23 2023 - 12:20:05 EST
