Robert Michael on collecting specialized data to inform public policy

Robert T. Michael, the Eliakim Hastings Moore Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus and Dean Emeritus at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, joins the podcast to discuss his path to the University of Chicago, why he loves teaching, and the challenges of collecting vital data on sensitive topics like human sexual behavior.

In this episode, Michael and Ashenfelter discuss: 

• Michael’s childhood in the “Welsh Hills” of southern Ohio and why, as a high school student, he ended up at a boarding school near Akron. 
• Michael’s experience studying under Jacob Mincer and Gary Becker at Columbia, which was the “high point” of his graduate career.
• How Michael ended up at the University of Chicago, where he joined the Department of Education and set up a center of economic analysis at the National Opinion Research Center (NORC).
• Michael’s work collecting data on adult sexual behavior–which began at the request of the NIH in the early stages of the HIV/AIDS epidemic–as well as his work collecting data on the cognitive and emotional development of children through NORC’s National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) Program.
• Michael’s love for teaching, and why he sees himself as a teacher first–not a researcher or administrator.

Robert Michael earned his Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University in 1969. He was the founding dean of the Harris School of Public Policy. He has also worked for many years at NORC–including as CEO–and is currently the project director of NORC’s NLSY Program. "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.