Ronald Ehrenberg on why industrial relations economists make great university administrators

Ronald Ehrenberg, the Irving M. Ives Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Economics Emeritus at Cornell University’s ILR School, joins the podcast to talk to Princeton’s Orley Ashenfelter about the twists and turns that led to his being on the faculty at Cornell–and why industrial relations economists make great university administrators.

In this episode, Ehrenberg and Ashenfelter discuss:

• A defining moment of his childhood that led to fear of failure–and how he moved past it.
• The nicest rejection letter Ehrenberg ever got, from Princeton’s Richard Lester.
• Ehrenberg’s dissertation at Northwestern, which faculty cautioned him not to pursue but ultimately got published in the American Economic Review.
• Ehrengberg’s early research modeling church attendance, which led to the development of Economics of Religion as a subfield within the discipline.
• Why Ehrenberg didn’t shy away from administrative roles at Cornell, and his founding of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute.

Ehrenberg earned his Ph.D. from Northwestern in 1970 and joined the faculty at Cornell University in 1975. "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.