In Memoriam
The Department of Economics remembers and celebrates the lives of our W. P. Carey community members who have passed away. Their contributions as influential economists and outstanding professors, researchers, and colleagues are sincerely appreciated and missed. We extend our deepest condolences to their families and friends.
Honoring Edward Christian Prescott
Served on economics faculty for 19 years, 2003-2022
In memory of Edward Prescott
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our colleague Edward Prescott — one of the most influential economists in the world, a Nobel Prize winner, and a beloved and respected member of the W. P. Carey community for 20 years.
Edward Prescott was born Dec. 26, 1940 in Glens Falls, New York. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, advanced to Case Western Reserve University in Ohio for his master’s degree, and completed his PhD in economics at Carnegie Mellon University in 1967.
Ed joined ASU in 2003, after serving on the faculties of University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie-Mellon, University of Chicago, and University of Minnesota. He also held appointments as a visiting professor at Northwestern University, New York University, University of California – Santa Barbara, La Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo in Mexico, Australian National University, and Norwegian School of Economics. At W. P. Carey he also served as the director of the Center for the Advanced Study in Economic Efficiency since 2009. Beyond academia, Ed served as a senior advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis since 1981.
His research is foundational to the field — and modern understanding — of macroeconomics. He and frequent co-author Finn Kydland were honored with the 2004 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences “for their contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: the time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles.” The impact of his work can be seen in five honorary professorships and doctorates he earned during his life, as well as multiple fellowships and his election to the National Academy of Sciences.
The W. P. Carey Department of Economics remembers all of Ed’s monumental contributions and our thoughts are with his family and friends. The school will share information about official services as it becomes available.
Honoring Berthold Herrendorf
Served on economics faculty for 19 years, 2003-2022
In Memory of Berthold Herrendorf
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our colleague Berthold Herrendorf, who recently passed away at age 58. Our deepest condolences go to his family and friends.
Berthold was an active member of the Economics Department. He obtained his Ph.D. at the European University Institute in 1996 and joined the department in 2003. He has contributed a great deal since then, having supervised several graduate students and contributing to the development of many others. He was an outstanding teacher and presenter of academic work, and won the college-wide W. P. Carey Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award in 2019. Berthold will be greatly missed.
Berthold's work concentrated on the study of economic development from a macroeconomic perspective, and his work was published in leading journals in the profession. His research consistently blended economic theory with careful measurement and data. He made multiple contributions to our understanding of the ultimate drivers of income and productivity differences across countries, ranging from the role of barriers to entry and trade on Total Factor Productivity, to the examination of what sectors make poorer countries unproductive.
Berthold's more recent contributions to the growing literature on the economic transformation — the reallocation of resources away from agriculture to the manufacturing sector and ultimately to the service sector — have been particularly influential. In several papers, he tackled a host of research questions on the topic, ranging from the nature of preferences consistent with the structural transformation, to the properties of technologies and rates of technical progress behind the structural transformation. His work has become over the years a mandatory reference for work in this area.