Skip navigation
Home James J. Heckman

James J. Heckman

James J. Heckman shared the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2000. He is the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago.

Titles by This Author

Giving Kids a Fair Chance

By James J. Heckman

In Giving Kids a Fair Chance, Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman argues that the accident of birth is the greatest source of inequality in America today. Children born into disadvantage are, by the time they start kindergarten, already at risk of dropping out of school, teen pregnancy, crime, and a lifetime of low-wage work. This is bad for all those born into disadvantage and bad for American society.

Inequality in America

What Role for Human Capital Policies?
By James J. Heckman and Alan B. Krueger
Edited by Benjamin M. Friedman

The surge of inequality in income and wealth in the United States over the past twenty-five years has reversed the steady progress toward greater equality that had been underway throughout most of the twentieth century. This economic development has defied historical patterns and surprised many economists, producing vigorous debate. Inequality in America: What Role for Human Capital Policies? examines the ways in which human capital policies can address this important problem.