Orley Ashenfelter (Princeton University)

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Orley Ashenfelter - Joseph Douglas Green 1895 Professor of Economics - received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa on the 6th April 2023.

Photo : Orley Ashenfelter, Joseph Douglas Green 1895 Professor of Economics at Princeton University
Orley Ashenfelter, Joseph Douglas Green 1895 Professor of Economics at Princeton University

Orley Ashenfelter is undoubtedly one of the world’s leading economists and one of the most innovative in his main field of study: labour economics and public policy evaluation. He has also made wine economics, his other favorite field, emerge as a complete discipline at the international level, notably by being at the origin of the Journal of Wine Economics, by showing the dynamics of prices, by demonstrating the interest of this sector for economic analysis and the understanding of informational mechanisms that exist for markets other than wine. 

Born in 1942 in San Francisco, Orley Ashenfelter received his Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University in 1970, before becoming director of the Office of Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Labour in 1972, visiting professor at the University of Bristol in 1980, and visiting professor at New York University School of Law in 1990. He is now the Joseph Douglas Green 1895 Professor of Economics at Princeton University. 

Research, collaboration, distinctions

He was the 1982 laureate of the prestigious Frisch Medal, the IZA Prize in Labour Economics and the Mincer Award for Lifetime Achievement of the Society of Labour Economists. Throughout his career, he has published nearly 170 articles and books, and was editor of the American Economic Review. He is a member of the Econometric Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Society of Labour Economics, and a corresponding member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and is president of the prestigious Association of American Economists.

Strongly attached to the University of Bordeaux and to the development of wine economics at this university, Orley Ashenfelter is a member of the advisory board of the Bordeaux Wine Economics research group and also sits on the scientific board of the ECOr research department.

The DHC for Prof. Ashenfelter was proposed by Jean-Marie Cardebat, professor of economics, director of the research department Behaviour, organisations and policy evaluation (ECOr), deputy director of Bordeaux School of Economics (BSE), University of Bordeaux ; president of the European Association of Wine Economics, and Olivier Bargain, professor of Economics and coordinator of the Major Research Programme HOPE, University of Bordeaux ; member of the Institut Universitaire de France and former member of the Council of Economic Advisors to the French Prime Minister.