Donaldson Wins John Bates Clark Medal
NBER Research Associate Dave Donaldson of Stanford University has been named this year's recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal, which is awarded by the American Economic Association (AEA) to the American economist under the age of 40 who has made the most substantial contribution to economic thought and knowledge.
Donaldson is an empirical trade economist whose research interests span central topics in international economics as well as issues in regional and development economics. According to the citation drafted by the AEA Honors and Awards Committee, "He has not only established himself as a leader in the field, but he has also formed and become the principal practitioner of a distinctive style of research based on important conceptual questions, careful data work, and credible identification combined with state-of-the-art structural methods." Donaldson has provided important new evidence on the efficiency gains and welfare effects of international and intranational trade, and also has developed insightful tests of the theory of comparative advantage and other central propositions in trade theory.
Donaldson is a research associate in three NBER programs: Development Economics, Development of the American Economy, and International Trade and Investment. A native of Toronto, he received his undergraduate degree in physics from Oxford University and his Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics.
Other current NBER research associates who have received the Clark Medal include Daniel McFadden, Martin Feldstein, Joseph Stiglitz, James Heckman, Jerry Hausman, Sanford Grossman, Paul Krugman, Lawrence Summers, David Card, Kevin Murphy, Andrei Shleifer, Steven Levitt, Daron Acemoglu, Susan Athey, Emmanuel Saez, Esther Duflo, Jonathan Levin, Amy Finkelstein, Raj Chetty, Matthew Gentzkow, and Roland G. Fryer, Jr. Other NBER associates who have won the Clark Medal are Franklin Fisher, now an emeritus member of the Board of Directors, and the late research associates Gary Becker, Milton Friedman, and Zvi Griliches.