Neither Mr. Wolfers nor Ms. Stevenson grew up this way. First documented by the economist Richard Easterlin in the 1970s, this concept involves the link between economic growth and happiness. “Any attempts to hide his feelings, positive or negative, are doomed to failure. Before the debate, 49.21 percent of the audience voted for my side and 31.75 percent for Justin… Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers NBER Working Paper No. A recent graduate of The King’s College , he and his wife, Amber, are co-investigators of the “Love and Marriage in Middle America” project, a qualitative study based on 100 interviews with young people about … Ms. Stevenson has an irresistible laugh and a stylish taste in clothes and shoes. [5] Wolfers attended James Ruse Agricultural High School (1985–1990). When her father, a pilot, left the Air Force, he had trouble finding a job. But when Ms. Stevenson, 40, and Mr. Wolfers, 39, start talking about say, diapers or nursing, the conversation takes an odd turn. Are people in rich countries happier than people in poor countries? But Ms. Stevenson says she gives a lot of thought to how people feel in certain situations and how those feelings influence their behavior. “But there were these other factors.”, “I disagree with everything Betsey was just saying,” Mr. Wolfers said. If you’re relatively affluent, as they are, they recommend outsourcing child care and domestic chores so you can spend your time on more leisure or economically worthwhile pursuits. “My confidence had been so eroded that I was the one saying, ‘Well, maybe this ...’ But you can’t exist in economics that way,” she said. LAST month, Ms. Stevenson and Mr. Wolfers presented new research into what is known as the Easterlin Paradox. The first study was the work of husband and wife economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers at the University of Pennsylvania. If they don’t quite sound like the rest of us, that’s because these two Harvard Ph.D.’s form a sort of power couple in the world of the dismal science, or at least a certain corner of it. forbesindia.com — Home UpFront Global News An economist offers advice on the most urgent tasks that need to be done for the economy in the next presidential term By Justin Wolfers Published: Nov 7, 2020 Image: Al Drago/ The New York Times Dear Mr. President: The American people face enormous challenges. But this occasion was different. BUT it is their work on lovenomics, as it might be called, and their popularity with the news media, that have brought them attention outside the academy. Their daughter, Matilda, who is almost 2 1/2 , attends classes in art, music and soccer. Mr. Wolfers, an iPad fan, wants to get rid of their print books. And contrary to popular belief, they show that the divorce rate in America has been falling, not rising, for decades. Ms. Stevenson’s confidence came later. Mention loading the dishwasher and he tosses out “fungibility.” The low cost of two big teddy bears they bought for Matilda gets Ms. Stevenson ruminating on productivity gains. Both are active on Twitter, where Ms. Stevenson lobs playful comments on the gender imbalances of academic economics. In 2001, Wolfers met Yellen again, when she and husband Akerlof interviewed him for an academic job at Berkeley. “I was the most self important 22-year-old you ever met,” Mr. Wolfers said. Ms. Stevenson was an Air Force brat whose family hopscotched around the country before ending up in Yorktown, Va., not far from Newport News. “It wasn’t what he said; it was his long hair,” she said. One of the problems with how economics is taught, Ms. Goldin said, is that “there aren’t people, there are agents, X’s and Y’s.” “Wouldn’t it be nice,” she added, “if our friends Betsey and Justin were writing a textbook that used all of their wealth of information about this real world in which people get married, get divorced, are happy and unhappy?”. His parents went through a bitter divorce when he was 15, leaving the family dependent on government assistance for a while. 12944 March 2007 JEL No. So while it could appear that increases in happiness flattened out after incomes reached a certain point, “the richer you are, the more dollars it takes to give you the same increase in well-being,” Ms. Stevenson said. Mr. Wolfers, the second of six children, spent his early years in Sydney. While divorce rates have … Mr. Wolfers has been a co-author of papers on subjects as diverse as capital punishment and racial bias among N.B.A. “Mama,” Matilda interrupted, “stop talking about work.”. Their research shows that men have grown happier as women have become unhappier. Jessica Kourkounis for The New York Times. Unemployment has come down from double digits to 5.8 percent, employment growth has been extremely strong, there’s no inflation anywhere on the horizon. Normally in the Soho debates, of which this was one, both sides get votes from the previous undecided. Wolfers said that student loan people wouldn’t spend much of the money. But she realized that many of the popular students in high school did not end up having the kind of adult life she wanted. They argue that there is a positive relationship over time and across countries between income and self-reported measures of happiness. [8] Prior to coming to the University of Michigan, Wolfers was associate professor of business and public policy at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. A glass-top Noguchi coffee table is in the living room, next to a white Jonathan Adler casting couch covered in a sheepskin throw from Costco. Ms. Stevenson grabbed a bottle and swigged it down. Claudia Goldin, a Harvard labor economist and another of Ms. Stevenson’s advisers, says she hopes that her former student and Mr. Wolfers will balance a little more emotion with classic economics in the introductory textbook they are writing together. Before Matilda arrived, Ms. Stevenson reviewed research on children and their effect on adult happiness. “Economists make very cold, calculating decisions and will come up with what looks like the rational best decision,” Ms. Stevenson said. But real economics takes account of emotions as well.”. They found that in states that adopted such laws, women’s suicide rates dropped, domestic abuse declined and even the number of women being murdered by their husbands fell. The New Yorker returns an award for its story on a Japanese rent-a-family business. He is a contributor to the New York Times (where he writes for The Upshot blog) and the Wall Street Journal, and was an editor of the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity from 2009 through Fall 2015. Justin James Michael Wolfers, born in 1972, is an Australian economist and public policy scholar. “Our friends don’t see us as experts, God bless them,” he said. Ms. Stevenson went to work for Forrester Research, the technology consulting firm. So Ms. Stevenson asked her daughter about her afternoon at the playground. Marriage and the Market by Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, economists at the Univesity of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, “re-frame Coontz’s careful history of the family in the language of economics,” exploring the economic forces underlying changes … Wolfers and Betsey Stevenson[8] have publicly discussed being in a Shared Earning/Shared Parenting relationship. Matilda happily shoved pieces of fusilli pasta into her mouth. Suddenly, words like “inputs” and “outputs” — the economic kind — creep in. Although Mr. Wolfers acknowledged having “huge relationship phobia,” because of his parents’ divorce, the couple applied for dozens of jobs together and ended up accepting posts at Wharton. 1 Economics and Open Marriage January 24, 2012 @ 9:52am by Justin Wolfers (Photo: Charles Fettinger) I have to admit that it counts as one of the more bizarre requests of my scholarly life. “Betsey says, here are a set of benefits and costs, and they chose to do the emotional thing. Mr. Wolfers, above, and Ms. Stevenson, below, both describe their childhood experiences of divorce and unemployment as profoundly formative, both professionally and personally. At first, Ms. Stevenson dismissed him as a mere political scientist. Ms. Stevenson has read the research suggesting that children go further educationally if they grow up surrounded by books. Over dinner, he and Ms. Stevenson began discussing Republican attacks on President Obama’s economic policies. (He used a more colorful word.). But in light of the Gingrich affair — (which one? Mr. Wolfers has written about the joys of fatherhood: “It’s visceral; it’s real; it’s hormonal and it’s not in our economic models.”. At first, he decided to forgo college, running for a bookie at a local racetrack. He is professor of economics and public policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, and a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. She headed for Wellesley College and eventually decided to study economics. By the time Wolfers was in year 12, Roslyn had found another house, but it only had two bedrooms: she got one, Justin got the other, and the rest of the family slept in the garage. Earlier this month, North Carolina voted to prohibit the practice, and, for the first time, President Barack Obama clearly came out My wife racked up $150k on a law degree (state school with residency) I have $50k in an undergrad in business (state school with non-resident) We will pay it back, eventually. BETSEY STEVENSON and Justin Wolfers might sound like almost any upscale couple. He didn’t get that job but was offered other coveted academic positions, including at Harvard, Yale and Columbia. (Why? Also interesting on the economics of marriage, here is Justin’s NY Times Op-Ed explaining trends in the marriage rate and the “hedonic model” of marriage proposed by Wolfers and Betsey Stevenson, i.e. That they are themselves a couple — unmarried, for tax reasons they regularly cite — adds to the allure. Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, of the University of Michigan talk with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about their work on the relationship between income and happiness. They don’t really know.) I also liked his Aussie humor about New Zealand. But when economists fall in love theyre not the same as the rest of us. You either have it or you don’t have it. [6] He is noted for his research on happiness and its relation to income. The first week on the job, he neglected to collect receipts on some of the bets he had placed with his boss’s money. They have impressive degrees and serious careers and the social markers that go with them. Wolfers is a Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. But Mr. Wolfers says the couple’s friends generally know better. Before long, he moved in. BOTH hew — one might even say passionately — to the data. Sometimes people can’t resist asking for advice. “So for the next couple of weeks I called him ‘Mr. Economics has clearly been good to them. Justin James Michael Wolfers, born in 1972, is an Australian economist and public policy scholar. “So now we are not married,” Mr. Wolfers joked, “but we both have jobs.”, Mr. Wolfers excelled at math from an early age and began studying economics in high school. Mr. Wolfers enrolled in the University of Sydney and went on to earn the University Medal in economics. Mr. Wolfers said that although he has an emotional side, “as an economist I’ve learned to squash it like hell.”. Specifically, they report that "states that adopted no-fault divorce experienced a decrease of 8 to 16 percent in wives' suicide rates and a … Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers are the go-to pair on what some might call “lovenomics,” having produced much research on marriage, divorce and child-rearing. “Education was the only way out of a dreary strip-mall existence,” she said. Justin Wolfers @JustinWolfers. One might have expected marriage to disappear as its traditional benefits faded. A payroll tax cut is the politically most expedient way to shovel money to those who need it least. I think he underestimates how much student loans … “That is something that can’t be taught. The national discussion about same-sex marriage is heating up. Here’s a picture Justin shows to demonstrate the point (the gray bars are recessions). She persuaded her boss to let her cobble together vacation time to work on economic research about the effect of the Internet on job search behavior. Wolfers holds a Ph.D. in Economics (1997–2001) and an Master of Economics (2000), both from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Sydney (1991–1994). They sifted through unemployment statistics to find the optimal population of potential nannies for Matilda: 20-something teachers. Their home in Philadelphia, in a historic building that once housed an African-American publishing house, features soaring ceilings and custom iron work. The idea is that, within a given country, people with higher incomes are more likely to be happy, and yet, for the most part, the average level of happiness doesn’t vary much from rich countries and poor countries. She is not allowed to eat any meat or sugar, not even in birthday cake. In marriage, "a husband and wife can each threaten the other implicitly if each has outside options," Wolfers said. So far, the books have stayed — in custom-built shelves. Boby Michael, "IMF Lists 25 Brightest Young Economists", International Business Times, Peterson Institute for International Economics, Shared Earning/Shared Parenting relationship, "RePEc Genealogy page for Justin Wolfers", "Much-Watched Couple in Economics Lands at U. of Michigan", "25 years at the top of the HSC: What makes James Ruse special", http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2013/04/subjective-well-being-income, "The future of economics isn't so dismal", "Macmillan Learning announces publication date for new Stevenson, Wolfers economics textbooks", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Justin_Wolfers&oldid=995343309, People educated at James Ruse Agricultural High School, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2019, Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 20 December 2020, at 14:47. Within a year, she was itching to get back to the academy. In an early class with Professor Mankiw, Mr. Wolfers took issue with one of his professor’s points, calling out, “That’s bollocks, Greg.”, Professor Mankiw still remembers the incident. Justin Wolfers' homepage. What’s more, as countries become richer, their populations don’t become happier. “Out of all my children he was, and still is, the most emotional,” Ms. Wolfers wrote in an e-mail. [9] In 2014, he was named by International Monetary Fund as one of the 25 brightest young economists who are expected to shape the world's thinking about the global economy in the future. Almost inevitably, a counter-attack was launched in the form of a 2008 paper by the husband and wife team of Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers titled “ Economic Growth and Subjective Well-Being: Reassessing the Easterlin Paradox ” and a subsequent follow-up in 2013 called “ Subjective Well-Being … His mother, Roslyn Wolfers, said she was bemused by this analysis. Two-earner couples have become the norm, and families spend less time on housework. [7], Wolfers moved to the University of Michigan as professor of economics and public policy beginning in fall 2012 with his partner, fellow economist Betsey Stevenson. marriage based on … Matilda’s nanny has a master’s degree in education and draws an annual salary of $50,000. In high school in Virginia, she was a top student in math and science but felt out of place in a social milieu that prized looks and boyfriends over academics. “We’re experts about abstract notions, so my friends might call me and say, ‘How’s the economy doing?’ but not, ‘Should I get married?’ ”. They cite a number of possible reasons, including more balanced expectations between men and women about how a marriage will actually work, as well as the fact that fewer people are marrying in the first place. I won, and in an unusual way. They found that women’s happiness levels had dropped over time in … In the attic is a home gym with a treadmill, a boxing bag, a recumbent bicycle and a flat-screen television. Another reason they stand out is that they have a remarkable ability to render economic concepts in simple terms. As @jasonfurman has noted, a 2% cut would yield $5,508 for a high-income couple, but … But at their home last month, their delight in their daughter was clear. Mr. Wolfers, kneading one of Ms. Stevenson’s pedicured feet, interrupted. “I know it is a policy, rather than an economics conference, because there is a line for the women’s toilet,” she tweeted last November. Their choice of topics tends to push people’s buttons and to grab the attention even of those who might ignore the latest figures on nonfarm payrolls or industrial capacity utilization. Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. So she turned down a faculty position at the University of Michigan and moved to California with Mr. Wolfers, who had accepted a job at the Stanford business school. Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers 29 validity of alternative theories of why the divorce rate rose in the late 1960s and into the 1970s; unfortunately, such tests are mostly absent from the existing literature. Mr. Wolfers once distilled a research paper by fellow economists on “present value earnings losses associated with job displacement” like this: Losing your job stinks. 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