Harald Uhlig

Born in Bonn,^[3] Uhlig received his Diplom in mathematics from Technische Universität Berlin in 1985 and earned a doctoral degree in economics at the University of Minnesota in 1990. His Ph.D. thesis, titled "Costly Information Acquisition, Stock Prices and Neoclassical Growth", was supervised by Christopher A. Sims.

He also earned a Vordiplom in economics (1983) and a Vordiplom in mathematics (1982) from Technische Universität Berlin, and his Abitur (high school diploma) from Waldoberschule Berlin in 1979.^[4]

Uhlig began his academic career as an assistant professor at Princeton University from 1990 to 1994. He subsequently held a research professorship in macroeconomics at CentER, Tilburg University (1994–2000), and a visiting professorship at Stanford University (1999–2000).^[5] From 2000 to 2007, he was a professor of economics at Humboldt University of Berlin; during this period, he also maintained a part-time (10%) professorship at CentER, Tilburg University (until 2012), and served as guest researcher at DIW Berlin (2002–2004) and at the Deutsche Bundesbank (from 2004 onward). He held short-term visiting and guest-lecturer positions at the University of Bonn (1993–1994) and, during a sabbatical, at the Center for Economic Studies in Munich, Bonn, and Chicago (1992–1993).^[2]

Uhlig joined the faculty of the University of Chicago in 2007 and has remained a member of its Department of Economics ever since, serving as department chairman from 2009 to 2012. In addition to his academic appointments, he has also been a consultant for both the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the European Central Bank,^[6] the Deutsche Bundesbank, and the Bank for International Settlements.^[7] He is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and chaired the CEPR European Business Cycle Dating Committee from 2005 to 2012.^[8]

Uhlig was co-editor of Econometrica from 2006 to 2010. He was a co-editor of the Journal of Political Economy from 2012 to 2021. He was also its lead editor from 2013 to 2021.^[9]

Controversy

In June 2020, using Twitter, Uhlig criticized Black Lives Matter, specifically the movement's use of the "Defund the Police" slogan, and compared people who supported it to "flat-earthers and creationists". His comments caused controversy, covered in The New York Times.^[10] Shortly thereafter, allegations of discriminatory conduct in the classroom surfaced.^[11] He was temporarily placed on leave as editor at the Journal of Political Economy "pending a determination of the Board as to whether it would be appropriate for him to continue in that role given recent accusations of discriminatory conduct in a University classroom setting."^[12] He was reinstated after a finding that "there is not a basis for a further investigation or disciplinary proceeding".^[13] His term as lead editor ended in Summer 2021.^[14][15] His ties to the Chicago Federal Reserve remain severed.^[16]

His research interests are in macroeconomics, financial markets, Bayesian econometrics, and in particular at the intersection of these three.^[4] Major fields of concentration include applied quantitative theory and applied dynamic stochastic general equilibrium theory (business cycles, growth, dynamic contracts, psychological foundations of dynamic decision theory, economic policy); the intersection of macroeconomics and financial economics (monetary economics, asset pricing, financial crises); and methods (vector autoregressions, Bayesian time series econometrics, numerical methods).^[5] Additional research fields include monetary policy, fiscal policy, sovereign debt crises, digital currencies, cryptocurrencies, central bank digital currency, bank runs, economic dynamics, and asset prices.^[7]

• In July 2021, Uhlig was elected a Fellow of the Society for Economic Measurement (SEM).^[4]
• In 2017, it was announced that Uhlig was named an Honorary Professor at Henan University in China.^[6]
• In 2013, Uhlig was appointed Duisenberg Fellow at the European Central Bank.^[4]
• In December 2005, Uhlig received the Frank P. Ramsey Prize for the best paper in Macroeconomic Dynamics, for the article "The Sharpe Ratio and Preferences: A Parametric Approach," with Martin Lettau.^[4]
• In December 2003, he was elected Fellow of the Econometric Society.
• In 2003, Uhlig won the Gossen Prize for his contributions to the theory and methods of dynamic macroeconomic models.^[17]

• "Understanding Unit Rooters: A Helicopter Tour". Econometrica. 59 (6): 1591–1599. ^[18]
• Uhlig, Harald (1997). "Bayesian Vector Autoregressions with Stochastic Volatility". Econometrica. 65 (1): 59–73. ^[19]
• Lettau, Martin; Uhlig, Harald (1999). "Rules of Thumb versus Dynamic Programming". American Economic Review. 89 (1): 148–174.^[20]
• Uhlig, Harald (2005). "What are the effects of monetary policy on output? Results from an agnostic identification procedure". Journal of Monetary Economics. 52 (2): 381–419.^[21]
• Ravn, Morten O.; Uhlig, Harald (2002). "On Adjusting the Hodrick–Prescott Filter for the Frequency of Observations". Review of Economics and Statistics. 84 (2): 371–376.^[22]
• Uhlig, Harald (2010). "Some Fiscal Calculus". American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings. 100 (2): 30–34.^[23]
• Mountford, Andrew; ——— (2009). "What are the Effects of Fiscal Policy Shocks?" (PDF). Journal of Applied Econometrics. 24 (6): 960–992. doi:10.1002/jae.1079. S2CID 547059.
• ——— (2005). "What are the Effects of Monetary Policy on Output? Results from an Agnostic Identification Procedure" (PDF). Journal of Monetary Economics. 52 (2): 381–419. doi:10.1016/j.jmoneco.2004.05.007.
• Ravn, Morten O.; ——— (2002). "On Adjusting the Hodrick–Prescott Filter for the Frequency of Observations". Review of Economics and Statistics. 84 (2): 371–376. doi:10.1162/003465302317411604. S2CID 845683.
• Ljungqvist, Lars; ——— (2000). "Tax Policy and Aggregate Demand Management under Catching up with the Joneses". American Economic Review. 90 (3): 356–366. doi:10.1257/aer.90.3.356. JSTOR 117333.
• ——— (1997). "Bayesian Vector Autoregressions with Stochastic Volatility". Econometrica. 65 (1): 59–73. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.27.2055. doi:10.2307/2171813. JSTOR 2171813. S2CID 124473617.
• Taylor, John B.; ——— (1990). "Solving Nonlinear Stochastic Growth Models: A Comparison of Alternative Solution Methods" (PDF). Journal of Business and Economic Statistics. 8 (1): 1–17. doi:10.1080/07350015.1990.10509766. S2CID 161599.