Bob Hall on his role in the Brookings Papers, the NBER Business Cycle Dating committee, and more

Bob Hall on his interest in policy, and the origins of the Brookings Papers and the NBER Business Cycle Dating committee

Bob Hall, the McNeil Joint Hoover Senior Fellow and Professor of Economics at Stanford University, joins the podcast to discuss how an interest in policy inspired him to study economics and his many contributions to applied economics.

In this episode, Hall and Ashenfelter discuss:

• How Hall’s involvement with the Young Democrats got him interested in policy and economics.
• Hall’s decision attend graduate school at MIT at the recommendation of Sid Winter and Dale Jorgenson.
• Why Robert Solow was “the best teacher in the world” and the role Solow played in Hall’s graduate education. (An episode of “The Work Goes On” featuring Robert Solow can be found here.)
• Hall’s early role in the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity and the article he wrote for the journal’s 50th anniversary.
• Hall’s pioneering work in microeconomic “big data” research, his 2007 book on the flat tax, and his leadership role in the NBER Business Cycle Dating committee.

Bob Hall earned his Ph.D. at MIT in 1967. "The Work Goes On"—a podcast produced as Princeton's Industrial Relations Section (IR Section) celebrates its 100th anniversary—is an oral history of industrial relations and labor economics hosted by Princeton's Orley Ashenfelter.