Faculty Profile: Kevin Murphy
Popular Economics Professor Speaks Out on Courses, Research, Super Bowl
Brian Fitzgerald
Issue date: 1/7/02 Section: GSB Business
Ask any second-year, "Did you take Murphy's Advanced Micro class?" and you'll get one of two responses: either 1) "Yes, and it was both the most difficult and the most rewarding class I've taken," or 2) "No, but I wish I had." No doubt, Kevin Murphy's courses are definitely in demand (and difficult). The bad news for first-years is that the window of opportunity for taking Micro with Murphy is probably closed (the course is taught only in the Fall Quarter). The good news is that the GSB recently announced an addition to the curriculum called Economic Analysis of Major Policy Issues (BUS 33111), taught jointly by Nobel Laureate Gary Becker, Kevin Murphy, and Dean Snyder (more on that later). Provided you're willing to pay up, a new window of opportunity is now open. Now, "are there any other questions that people have" about Kevin M. Murphy?
Background
Kevin Murphy is the George Pratt Shultz Professor of Economics and Industrial Relations and the 1997 recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal award. Winning the John Bates Clark Medal is a big deal. The award is given biennially to a promising American economist under the age of forty, and nine of the twenty-seven recipients of the Award since 1947 have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize. Former recipients include, notably, Gary Becker, Milton Friedman, Paul Krugman and Lawrence Summers. But before all that…
Professor Murphy grew up in Inglewood, California, near Los Angeles. (He points out that his hometown is the very same Inglewood depicted in "The Wood", the 1999 film starring Taye Diggs.) Murphy graduated from Inglewood High School, where he met Arlene, his high school sweetheart whom he would later marry. Throughout high school, Professor Murphy worked at the local supermarket, a position that he held throughout college as well.
Murphy studied economics at UCLA, choosing to stay near home for college. Maybe it was prophetic when Robert Topel, then a graduate student at UCLA, graded Murphy's first exam in economics (Topel is now on faculty at the GSB). The two most influential teachers during Murphy's undergraduate years, Ben Klein and Finis Welch, were both schooled at University of Chicago. Klein and Welch had much to do with Murphy's decision to pursue a Ph.D. in economics and with where he would do so.
Background
Kevin Murphy is the George Pratt Shultz Professor of Economics and Industrial Relations and the 1997 recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal award. Winning the John Bates Clark Medal is a big deal. The award is given biennially to a promising American economist under the age of forty, and nine of the twenty-seven recipients of the Award since 1947 have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize. Former recipients include, notably, Gary Becker, Milton Friedman, Paul Krugman and Lawrence Summers. But before all that…
Professor Murphy grew up in Inglewood, California, near Los Angeles. (He points out that his hometown is the very same Inglewood depicted in "The Wood", the 1999 film starring Taye Diggs.) Murphy graduated from Inglewood High School, where he met Arlene, his high school sweetheart whom he would later marry. Throughout high school, Professor Murphy worked at the local supermarket, a position that he held throughout college as well.
Murphy studied economics at UCLA, choosing to stay near home for college. Maybe it was prophetic when Robert Topel, then a graduate student at UCLA, graded Murphy's first exam in economics (Topel is now on faculty at the GSB). The two most influential teachers during Murphy's undergraduate years, Ben Klein and Finis Welch, were both schooled at University of Chicago. Klein and Welch had much to do with Murphy's decision to pursue a Ph.D. in economics and with where he would do so.