News

Crotty Named First Sheridan Chair in Political Economy

The Economics Department has selected James Crotty as the first occupant of the Helen Sheridan Memorial Chair in Political Economy. Crotty is internationally recognized for his work in domestic and international macroeconomic theory and policy. For more than 30 years this extraordinarily effective and well-liked professor has been a lynchpin of the Economics Department's undergraduate and graduate programs in macroeconomics.

The Helen Sheridan Memorial Chair was created with a generous bequest from Mildred S. Barber ’43 to honor her aunt, Helen Sheridan. Occupants of the Sheridan Chair, appointed for 3 year terms, will be prominent economists and effective teachers who will engage in research and teaching and help administer a research and scholarship fund, called the Helen Sheridan Memorial Research and Scholarship Fund, to further the study and development of heterodox economics.

Over the last decade, Crotty has developed a highly sophisticated and rich analysis of macroeconomic outcomes based on an innovative and, indeed, unique, blending of key insights of three giants of economic thought: Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, and Joseph Schumpeter. By integrating aspects of their ideas, and adding many important innovations of his own, Crotty has produced a large amount of important research on theoretical, empirical and policy oriented topics in the broad areas of macroeconomics and finance. He has published over fifty academic articles and book chapters as well as numerous pieces for popular magazines. Some of Crotty’s recent academic papers have been important analyses of the evolution of the South Korean economy in relation to the South Korean financial crisis of the late 1990s; others have analyzed the relationships among financialization, investment, and economic growth. Crotty regularly is invited to present lectures in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

In the last several years Crotty has embarked on a highly ambitious new research project attempting to better understand the structures and dynamics of the powerful and unstable national and global financial system. Although he has already begun to write and lecture on the fruits of his  insightful work in these areas, the time and resources afforded him by the Sheridan Chair will undoubtedly facilitate this important work. In addition, as part of his duties as Sheridan Chair, Crotty will design and teach a new undergraduate seminar in economics which, given his superb qualities as a teacher, certainly will result in a rewarding experience for his students.

May 8, 2007