Fryer Receives John Bates Clark Medal

NBER Research Associate Roland G. Fryer, Jr. received the American Economic Association's John Bates Clark Medal for 2015. This annual award recognizes the American economist under the age of 40 who has made the most substantial contribution to economic thought and knowledge. This year's prize citation highlights Fryer's "innovative and creative research contributions [that] have deepened our understanding of the sources, magnitude, and persistence of U.S. racial inequality," and his evaluations of various policies that are designed to improve economic opportunities for disadvantaged children. It calls Fryer "the leading economist working on the economics of race and education."

Fryer is the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University and a research associate in the NBER Labor Studies and Education programs. He received his B.A. from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1998 and his Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University in 2002.

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, and Matthew Gentzkow. 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.