News and Announcements
CEHD is hiring an executive assistant to provide support for the center’s director
CEHD is hiring a proficient, proactive executive assistant to provide high-level, confidential support for the center’s director. This is a dynamic, fast-paced position of high responsibility with a wide-ranging variety of work.Build Back Better Early Childhood Provisions Rest on CEHD Research
The Build Back Better spending package passed by the House of Representatives early Nov. 19 funds free preschool and other provisions that add up to “the largest investment in child care in the nation’s history.” The economic rationale for that investment is based on a body of research from Director James J. Heckman and colleagues, including recent work by coauthors associated with CEHD.CEHD is Hiring Postdoctoral Scholars
The Center for the Economics of Human Development (CEHD) at the University of Chicago is actively seeking Postdoctoral Scholars interested in the economics of creating and measuring skills. Scholars are expected to conduct empirical collaborative work on one (or more) focused projects. Descriptions for past and ongoing projects can be found on the Center’s website. Scholars can propose new independent research projects consistent with the Center’s broad aims.CEHD is Hiring Predoctoral Fellows
The Center for the Economics of Human Development (CEHD) at the University of Chicago is actively hiring Predoctoral Fellows (Research Specialist 2) to conduct and disseminate rigorous interdisciplinary research that identifies and explores the conditions under which people develop the skills necessary to thrive in society and achieve their fullest potential. Descriptions for past and ongoing projects can be found on this website, such as ChinaREACH and the The Origins and Persistence of Inequality in Denmark Project.Jamaican Early Childhood Stimulation Study Shows Benefits Last Through Age 31
A group of infants and toddlers in Jamaica who received developmental stimulation—via home visits and nutritional support—continue to show benefits from this intervention as adults three decades later, according to a new study published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
The data provide clear guidelines for action. American policy should acknowledge the power of the accident of birth. A child does not choose the family he or she is born into. But society can enrich the opportunities of disadvantaged children to flourish.
     – James J. Heckman

Events and Workshops
3:00-4:30pm
SHFE112 and Zoom
Lifecycle Working Group
The Lifecycle Working Group, organized by James Heckman, Steven Durlauf, and Jin Zhou, invites faculty, researchers and graduate students to present work that applies the comprehensive lifecycle approach to the study of human flourishing. The workshop takes place on Tuesdays at 1:30PM on Zoom. This interdisciplinary workshop is open to the campus research community. Learn about upcoming sessions.
November 18-19
Madison, Wisconsin
Frontiers in Economic Analysis with Genetic Data
The conference Frontiers in Genetics and Economics will take place on Thursday, November 18th and Friday, November 19th, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The conference will bring together economists interested in the potential for genetic data to contribute to broad, long-standing questions in economics. Learn more.
Current and Upcoming Visitors

Mikkel Aagaard Houmark
Visiting dates: March 21, 2022 - August 20, 2022
Mikkel Aagaard Houmark is a PhD-student at the Department of Economics and Business Economics at Aarhus University in Denmark. His research spans different areas of applied microeconometrics, with a particular focus on how genes, education and the childhood environment jointly shape the development of skills and well-being.

Orhan Torul
Visiting dates: September 15, 2021 - June 30, 2022
Orhan Torul is an associate professor at the Department of Economics and a research associate at the Center for Economics and Econometrics at Boğaziçi University. He worked as a visiting researcher at the Istanbul School of Central Banking in 2015 and the Department of Economics at the University of Oslo in 2017. His research interests lie in the areas of macroeconomics, economic inequality, and political economy. His research concentrates particularly on the evolution of economic inequalities, intergenerational mobility, and their interaction with economic policies.