James Heckman of the University of Chicago receives 2000 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences

James Heckman, the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor in Economics and in the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies, has received the 2000 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He was cited for his work in the field of microeconomics and received the award with Daniel McFadden of the University of California, Berkeley.

Heckman, a prominent scholar of the impact of social programs and the methodologies used to measure their effects, has been a University of Chicago faculty member since 1973.

Heckman's research has given policymakers important new insights in such areas as education, job-training programs, minimum-wage legislation, anti-discrimination law and civil rights. He is the author of "Longitudinal Analysis of Labor Market Data" (1985) and numerous articles on labor, education and civil-rights policies.

Heckman, 56, and his wife Lynne have two children, a daughter Alma, 14, and a son Jonathan, 18, a college student.