Three economists awarded Sloan fellowships

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowships have been awarded to three faculty members: Yacine Aït-Sahalia, Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Business; Casey Mulligan, Assistant Professor in Economics; and Derek Neal, Associate Professor in Economics. They each will receive $35,000 in research funds.

The University's Sloan fellows are among 100 young scientists and economists in the United States and Canada selected to receive this year's awards. The fellowships are awarded to young scientists in the early stages of their careers on the basis of their exceptional promise to contribute to the advancement of knowledge. Candidates for the fellowships are nominated by department chairs and other senior scholars.

Ait-Sahalia has focused his research activities on fixed-income and derivative securities, continuous-time models and nonparametric econometrics. A faculty member since 1993, he received the GSB's Emory Williams Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1995. Ait-Sahalia received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1993; prior to that he attended the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Economique in Paris.

Mulligan studies the transmission of family work values and wealth between generations. In a recent book, >Parental Priorities and Economic Inequality, published by the Press, he has shown that parents share their resources unequally, giving more to those children with whom they spend more time. A 1991 Harvard graduate, Mulligan received his Ph.D. from Chicago in 1993, the same year he joined the University faculty.

Neal's research interests are in education and the labor market. His work has shown, for instance, that Catholic schools have the biggest impact on disadvantaged urban students. He is the author of numerous papers on the topic, including "What Have We Learned About the Benefits of Private School?" and "The Effects of Catholic School Performance."

A faculty member at Chicago since 1991, Neal received his Ph.D. in 1992 from the University of Virginia.