W. Craig Riddell on his path from the Canadian Navy to labor economics

W. Craig Riddell on his path from the Canadian Navy to labor economics

W. Craig Riddell, Professor Emeritus of Economics at the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia, joins the podcast to discuss his early life in small town Ontario, his brief stint in the Canadian navy, and how he discovered a passion for labor economics.

In this episode, Riddell and Ashenfelter discuss:

• Riddell’s unusual path to economics, and his decision to attend the Royal Military College and enlist in the Canadian Navy.
• The influence Richard Lipsey–Riddell’s teacher in both his master’s and Ph.D. programs at Queen’s College–had on Riddell’s career.
• Riddell’s dissertation, which used new, individual-level contract wage data to study the Phillips Curve and was eventually published in Econometrica. “I did find there was strong evidence of a Phillips Curve and there was actually evidence of those famous Lipsey loops around the Phillips Curve.”
• Institutional differences between the U.S. and Canada–including frameworks for unionization–and how those differences might affect economic variables and outcomes in the two countries.
• The strong tradition of research in the Riddell family, including a paper jointly authored by Riddell’s wife and son, Rosemarie Riddell and Chris Riddell, that ultimately influenced public policy on subsidies for individuals enrolled in drug treatment centers.

W. Craig Riddell earned his Ph.D. at the Queen’s University at Kingston in 1977. He has served as president of the Canadian Economics Association and as the former director of the Canadian Labour Market and Skills Research Network. "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.