James M. Poterba
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James Michael "Jim" Poterba (born July 13, 1958) is an American economist, Mitsui Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and incoming NBER president and chief executive officer.
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[edit] Early years
Poterba was born in the New York City on July 13, 1958. He completed his A.B., Summa Cum Laude, in 1980 from Harvard University and completed his Ph.D. in 1983 from University of Oxford. He was a Marshall Scholar.
[edit] Academic career
Poterba started his career as an Instructor in Economics at MIT. He became Professor of Economics at MIT in 1988. Today, he is the Mitsui Professor of Economics and the Head of the MIT Economics Department. He will become president of the National Bureau of Economic Research on July 1, 2008.
[edit] Research
Poterba is know for his research on how taxation affects the economic decisions of households and firms. His research has emphasized the effect of taxation on the financial behavior of households, particularly their saving and portfolio decisions. He is also interested in the analysis of tax-deferred retirement saving programs such as 401(k) plans and in the role of annuities in financing retirement consumption.
He has also been Director of the NBER Public Economics Research Program since 1991. He has served as a member of the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform and edited the Journal of Public Economics, the leading international journal for research on taxation and government spending, between 1997 and 2006. He has edited several economics journals.
