Jere Behrman

William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Economics, University of Pennsylvania

Jere R. Behrman (PhD, M.I.T, 1966) is the W. R. Kenan Professor of Economics and Director of the Population Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has been on the faculty since 1965. His research interests are in empirical micro economics, economic development, labor economics, human resources, economic demography and household behaviors. He has published over 230 professional articles and 27 books and monographs on these topics. He has worked as a research consultant with numerous national and international organizations, including the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank IDB). He has been the principal investigator or co-principal investigator on over 40 research projects funded by organizations such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and various foundations. He has lectured widely in the U.S. and internationally and has been involved in professional research or lecturing activities in over 40 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America and the Carribean. He long has worked on questions related to Chilea since he spent a year working in the Chilean Economic Planning Office (ODEPLAN) in 1968-9. His most recent visit there was in December 2001 when he was invited to give a lecture series at the Universidad de Chile and to participate in planning for the development of collaborative research arrangements (of which this proposal is an outcome). He has worked on various aspects of aging in the U.S., including the analysis of retirement and mortality within dynamic contexts, with focus on distributional issues and the implications for the Social Security system (e.g., Behrman, et al. 1998). He brings to the project considerable expertise on micro empirical analysis of life-cycle issues — including those related to labor markets, retirement and social security — in a range of contexts and a broad perspective on related questions not only in Chile and other developing countries, but also in the U. S.