I applaud Dean Jamal’s initiatives on internationalization, diversity, and dialogue with policymakers but wonder if the school’s early brilliance in economics and statistics is still getting the attention it deserves. When I returned to the school from a two-year “sabbatical” in 1969, my primary interest was still in the “social” side of development, but I recognized the school’s strengths in economics and statistics, largely the fruit of Bill Bowen’s leadership, and so enrolled in every course I could in those fields. I was richly rewarded with courses by Arthur Lewis, Orley Ashenfelter, and Edward Tufte, among others, incomparable in their interdisciplinary approaches. Their work was and remains foundational for policy analysis, and I would hate for the school to lose its global edge.
I applaud Dean Jamal’s initiatives on internationalization, diversity, and dialogue with policymakers but wonder if the school’s early brilliance in economics and statistics is still getting the attention it deserves. When I returned to the school from a two-year “sabbatical” in 1969, my primary interest was still in the “social” side of development, but I recognized the school’s strengths in economics and statistics, largely the fruit of Bill Bowen’s leadership, and so enrolled in every course I could in those fields. I was richly rewarded with courses by Arthur Lewis, Orley Ashenfelter, and Edward Tufte, among others, incomparable in their interdisciplinary approaches. Their work was and remains foundational for policy analysis, and I would hate for the school to lose its global edge.