Symposium Honors Rosenzweig

A symposium honoring the distinguished career of Economic Growth Center Director, Professor Mark Rosenzweig, was hosted by the Economic Growth Center at the Yale Club in New York City on Friday and Saturday, November 10-11, 2017. The two-day event welcomed Professor Rosenzweig’s coauthors, colleagues, former graduate students, and family members, 15 of whom gave formal talks. 

A celebratory dinner was held on Friday night, with former Yale colleague Chris Udry acting as the master of ceremonies. The evening included heartfelt remarks given by Professor Rosenzweig’s coauthors Ken Wolpin, Andrew Foster, Paul Schultz, and Guillermina Jasso. Former students, including Melanie Morten, Elaina Rose, Joyce Chen, and Jeff Weaver, reminisced about their time as advisees under Professor Rosenzweig, while current colleagues, Dirk Bergemann, Mushfiq Mobarak, and Dorothy Ovelar told anecdotes of working with Mark.

The students presented an interactive trivia game called “Mark or Not” in which quotes attributed to Mark were projected on a screen. The object of the game was for audience members to determine if quotes such as “farms are firms,” and “where’s the model?” were actually made by Rosenzweig.

A picture collage was presented to Professor Rosenzweig showing 16 of his coauthors holding the title page of the first publication on which they collaborated with him.

To cap-off the evening, Professor Rosenzweig spoke of the importance of theory-based empirical research, his time at Yale beginning with his initial hire in 1973, and later his prodigal return in 2005 after holding professorships at University of Pennsylvania, University of Minnesota, and Harvard, and his appreciation for his colleagues in the field. 

For a full listing of the symposium schedule, see the Economic Growth Center website.