James M. Poterba

James Michael "Jim" Poterba, FBA is an American economist who is the Mitsui Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and current National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) president and chief executive officer.

Early life and education Poterba was born in New York City. He attended Pennsbury High School in Pennsylvania, where he won the 1976 championship of the National Forensic League in policy debate. He completed his A.B., summa cum laude, in 1980 from Harvard University and completed his PhD in 1983 from Nuffield College, Oxford. He was a Marshall Scholar. In 1999 Poterba was awarded the NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing from the National Academy of Sciences.

In July 2017, Poterba was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.

Personal life Poterba is married to economist Nancy Rose.