Faculty Smackdown - Prof. Kevin Murphy
Discussing Grocery Bagging, Economics, Soccer, and More
Andrew Van Fossen, '06
Issue date: 2/16/06 Section: GSB News
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Kevin Murphy: Are you kidding? Why would I want to be an economist? I thought I was probably going to work in a grocery store. I actually started working at a small, independent market when I was 14 and worked there all the way through grad school.
CB: What did you do, bag groceries?
KM: I started out below bagging groceries; I started out sorting Coke bottles. Then made it up to bagging groceries, then worked as a stock clerk, at the check stand, bought produce, cut meat -- I did all kinds of stuff.
CB: Are you pretty good in the kitchen?
KM: Yeah, I'm pretty good at picking fruits and vegetables. I'm really good at picking watermelon, actually. It's all in the sound. You got to pick it up and tap it: if it buzzes too much it's over ripe, if it thuds it's bad. There's just a feel to it.
CB: What type of kid were you in high school?
KM: I was a bit of a jock. I played football, strong safety. I was smaller, thinner in those days. I went to Inglewood High School [in Los Angeles] right by the Forum [former home of the Los Angeles Lakers].
CB: Were you a big Lakers fan?
KM: We used to go down to the Forum. One guy would buy a ticket for $1.75 and then let all the rest of us in through the emergency exit.
CB: Then you went to UCLA.
KM: That's were I learned about economics. I had several teachers there who were from Chicago. Actually Bob Topel is from here, he graded my first econ exam.
CB: How did you do?
KM: I did okay. It was a great place to start. They had some of the same emphasis that they have here at the University of Chicago. Economics was something to be used to explain the world, something with an empirical focus.
CB: When you were a freshman, did you know you wanted to go into economics?
KM: No, I was a mathematics major early on. Plus, I was working at the grocery store full time, so college was a sideline for me. I got a little more interested in college as I started to have success and meet people in the economics department.
CB: Was there any particular lecture you went to or paper you read that got you interested in economics?
KM: I took Mike Ward's class; he has a PhD from Chicago. He really knows economics and how to use it. I would talk to him after class and he introduced me to Finis Welch and Ben Klein who got me interested in a deeper study of economics.