Six Economics faculty have been selected to receive the 2019 Merton J. Peck Prize for excellence in undergraduate teaching. This year’s distinguished faculty members are: Evangelia Chalioti, Phil Haile, Marina Halac, William Hawkins, Cormac O’Dea, and Aleh Tsyvinski.
The annual award honors Merton “Joe” Peck, the Thomas DeWitt Cuyler Professor Emeritus of Economics, who was a specialist in industrial organization and was considered a most able administrator, devoted teacher and mentor of Yale undergraduate and graduate students.
“I would like to congratulate all the of the recipients of this year’s Merton J. Peck Prize for their wonderful, engaged efforts at educating our undergraduates in economics,” said department chair, Tony Smith. “And let me underscore again that in light of Joe Peck’s many contributions to the study of economics at Yale, especially to undergraduate education, it is most appropriate that this prize for excellence in undergraduate teaching be named for him.”
Peck played a major role in strengthening the undergraduate economics program who held undergraduate teaching in a preeminent position. Serving as the director of undergraduate studies for many years, as well as the longest‐serving chair of the department, Peck was described as an excellent and popular undergraduate teacher. His corporate strategy undergraduate seminar was so oversubscribed that he had to teach it twice in the same term. Peck also taught the core graduate course in industrial organization for many years, training and mentoring students who followed in his scholarly path.
Peck’s many administrative hats also included director of graduate studies and acting dean of the Yale School of Management. His scholarship contributed greatly to the understanding of economics in a wide range of important industries - including transportation and aluminum – the economics of technological change, and governmental defense‐procurement policy.
The Merton J. Peck Prize was established in 2018.
