After gradu
ating from LGB in 1983, I enrolled at MIT. I was unsure whether to major in Physics, which fascinated me or Electrical Engineering, which I knew less about. The Economics courses I took during my freshman year made me even less sure what to major in…
Unemployment was high in many countries, and I realized that Economics could hold a remedy to this human misery. I opted ultimately for Electrical Engineering, for mostly bad reasons: it was the hot field at the time, it was viewed as having safer employment prospects than a pure science by many people advising me, it’s novelty made it almost as interesting as Physics.
I graduated in the peak year for U.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering, which subsequently declined to become an unimportant field. Few college graduates, regardless of major struggled with unemployment. Physics graduates were earning as much as Engineering graduates. Eventually the novelty of Electrical Engineering wore off. I yearned for a field whose aims interested me, whose outlook was international without being military, and whose methods were mathematical, so I entered the Economics PhD program at Harvard.
Since switching to Economics, I have devoted myself happily to seeking policies to raise wages of low-skilled workers and reduce unemployment, and to understanding the benefits, costs and causes of migration. I have carried out research on the United States, Germany and France as a professor at Yale University, Université de Montréal, McGill University and Rutgers University, and have been a visiting professor in seven countries. My 2013-2015 service as a political appointee in the Obama Administration provided a stimulating interlude in which I helped conceive and implement labor market and education policies at the U.S. Department of Labor (as Chief Economist) and at the U.S. Department of the Treasury (as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Microeconomic Analysis).
Ecolint is built on the belief that all people are of equal value. An implication is that the more fortunate should find a way to help the less fortunate. The task ahead of current Ecolint students is to find what they love and do well, and think how they can use their preferences and talents to contribute most to society.
Jennifer Hunt,
Class of 1983
