Robert W. Fogel

Robert William Fogel is a Nobel laureate in economics. He is recognized worldwide as an economic historian and scientist. Fogel also heads the Center for Population Economics at Chicago GSB.

Fogel is a leading advocate for the use of quantitative methods in history. His research interests include socioeconomic and biomedical predictors at early ages of morbidity, mortality, and labor force participation at mid-adult and late ages, forecasting pension and health care costs, and strategic marketing forecasting.

Fogel first attracted attention in the early 1960s with his statistical analysis of the impact of railroads on 19th-century American economic development. He began to focus on what he called "the problem of creating and studying large life-cycle and intergenerational data sets," in the 1980s. His research has led to numerous publications on the topic of economics and aging. His book, The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, is considered essential reading for all those interested in economics, demography, history, and health care policy. Time on the Cross, which he coauthored with Stanley L. Engerman, has been described as an "instant classic."

The author of more than 80 articles, Fogel's more recent work includes A Guide to Business Ethics, The Political Realignment of the 1850s: A Socioeconomic Analysis and The Changing Body: Technophysio Evolution in Britain, Europe and the United States since 1700 with Roderick Floud and Bernard Harris.

His research has earned him numerous awards in addition to the Nobel Prize. The Alliance for Aging Research recognized Fogel as an "Indispensable Person in Health Research" in 2006 for his work on the economics of health and health care. He has won an Exxon Educational Foundation Grant, a Ford Faculty Research Fellowship, a Fulbright Grant, and several National Science Foundation Grants. Much of his research in the last fifteen years has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health.

In addition to teaching at Chicago, Fogel has taught courses at Johns Hopkins University, the University of Rochester, and Harvard University. He has lectured for the World Bank, Dartmouth University, and Columbia University, as well as in Argentina, Belgium, France, Holland, Norway, and Switzerland.

Fogel has a bachelor's degree from Cornell University, a master's degree from Columbia University, and a PhD from Johns Hopkins University that he received in 1963. Fogel has received honorary degrees from Cambridge University, Harvard University, Brigham Young University, and the University of Rochester. He taught at the GSB from 1963 to 1975, and returned in 1981 after work at Harvard University.

Fogel's interests include music, photography, and woodworking.