William Dickens
University Distinguished Professor of Economics & Social Policy; Chair, Department of Economics
William Dickens is University Distinguished Professor and the chair of the Department of Economics at Northeastern University, Boston. He holds a joint appointment in the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs. He is currently a non-resident senior fellow with The Brookings Institution and a visiting scholar with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Professor Dickens’ main research area now is the cause of long-term unemployment and its consequences for monetary policy. Previously Professor Dickens was the Thomas Schelling Visiting Professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland; a senior fellow in residence at The Brookings Institution; and in 2008-09, a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation where he pursued writing and research as part of an interdisciplinary group studying the malleability of cognitive ability; a senior economist for the President’s Council of Economic Advisers; a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley; a visiting assistant professor at the Sloan School of Management, M.I.T.; and a consultant for The World Bank. He holds a BA in social studies from Bard College and a PhD in economics from M.I.T.