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The eldest child of a poet, Helen Stueland McCloskey, and of a tenured and notable professor of government at [[Harvard University]], the late Robert McCloskey, Deirdre McCloskey earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees in [[economics]] at Harvard University. (Her study of British iron and steel won in 1973 the distinguished David A. Wells Prize for best dissertation.) In graduate school the quantitative economic historian was deeply impressed by the wide-learning of her advisor, the Russian economic historian [[Alexander Gerschenkron]]. At the same time McCloskey became persuaded by the Chicago School of Economics. In 1968 - while still a graduate student - McCloskey was hired by Milton Friedman and Robert Fogel to join the faculty of economics at the University of Chicago where she stayed for 12 years with tenure producing and teaching price theory and economic history before turning in 1979 to the study of rhetoric, feminism, and the history and philosophy of economics and other human sciences. Notably at the University of Iowa the John Murray Professor of Economics and of History (1980-1999) published ''The Rhetoric of Economics (1985)'' and co-founded with John S. Nelson, Allan Megill, and others a field of study, "the rhetoric of the human sciences," and an institution and graduate program, the Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (Poroi).
The eldest child of a poet, Helen Stueland McCloskey, and of a tenured and notable professor of government at [[Harvard University]], the late Robert McCloskey, Deirdre McCloskey earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees in [[economics]] at Harvard University. (Her study of British iron and steel won in 1973 the distinguished David A. Wells Prize for best dissertation.) In graduate school the quantitative economic historian was deeply impressed by the wide-learning of her advisor, the Russian economic historian [[Alexander Gerschenkron]]. At the same time McCloskey became persuaded by the Chicago School of Economics. In 1968 - while still a graduate student - McCloskey was hired by Milton Friedman and Robert Fogel to join the faculty of economics at the University of Chicago where she stayed for 12 years with tenure producing and teaching price theory and economic history before turning in 1979 to the study of rhetoric, feminism, and the history and philosophy of economics and other human sciences. Notably at the University of Iowa the John Murray Professor of Economics and of History (1980-1999) published ''The Rhetoric of Economics (1985)'' and co-founded with John S. Nelson, Allan Megill, and others a field of study, "the rhetoric of the human sciences," and an institution and graduate program, the Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (Poroi).


McCloskey is the author or editor of 20 books and over 300 articles challenging standard assumptions in the field.
McCloskey is the author or editor of 20 books and over 300 articles challenging standard assumptions in the field.

Her major contributions since the 1960s are in the economic history of Britain, the quantification of historical inquiry, the rhetoric of economics, the rhetoric of the human sciences, economic methodology, virtue ethics, feminist economics, heterodox economics, the role of mathematics in economic analysis, and the use (and misuse) of significance testing in economics.

On this last topic her contributions have been particularly well-regarded. She has argued that economists often celebrate "[[statistically significant]]" results while ignoring the [[economic significance]] of results.

Her main work now is on virtue ethics. Love she says is as important a virtue for economists to study as is efficiency or plain prudence. She discussed some of these issues in the inaugural [[James M. Buchanan]] Lecture at [[George Mason University]] on [[April 7]], [[2006]]. She said there, capitalism "is an ethically drenched human activity" which requires attention to all of the classical [[seven virtues]], while economists usually focus exclusively on [[prudence]]. Her latest book ''The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce'' <ref>http://www.gmu.edu/centers/publicchoice/pdf%20links/dpaper4706.pdf</ref> is the first of a projected five-volume magnum opus.


==Personal life==
==Personal life==

Revision as of 01:17, 11 February 2008

Deirdre N. McCloskey (Born Donald N. McCloskey) (1942 - ) is an American economist and professor.


Career

Deirdre McCloskey is a leading economist, scholar, and public intellectual. Her job title at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) - where she's been since being hired in 1999 by Stanley Fish - indicates a rather extraordinary career path. Currently her title at UIC is Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication. (She is also adjunct professor of Philosophy and Classics at UIC, and was for five years the Tinbergen Distinguished Professor of Economics, Philosophy, History, English, and Arts and Culture, at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.) Since October 2007 she has received two honorary doctorates.

The eldest child of a poet, Helen Stueland McCloskey, and of a tenured and notable professor of government at Harvard University, the late Robert McCloskey, Deirdre McCloskey earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees in economics at Harvard University. (Her study of British iron and steel won in 1973 the distinguished David A. Wells Prize for best dissertation.) In graduate school the quantitative economic historian was deeply impressed by the wide-learning of her advisor, the Russian economic historian Alexander Gerschenkron. At the same time McCloskey became persuaded by the Chicago School of Economics. In 1968 - while still a graduate student - McCloskey was hired by Milton Friedman and Robert Fogel to join the faculty of economics at the University of Chicago where she stayed for 12 years with tenure producing and teaching price theory and economic history before turning in 1979 to the study of rhetoric, feminism, and the history and philosophy of economics and other human sciences. Notably at the University of Iowa the John Murray Professor of Economics and of History (1980-1999) published The Rhetoric of Economics (1985) and co-founded with John S. Nelson, Allan Megill, and others a field of study, "the rhetoric of the human sciences," and an institution and graduate program, the Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (Poroi).

McCloskey is the author or editor of 20 books and over 300 articles challenging standard assumptions in the field.

Personal life

McCloskey transitioned from male to female in 1995, age 53, a fact which she records in a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Crossing: A Memoir (1999, University of Chicago Press). McCloskey often advocates on behalf of the rights of persons and organizations in the LGBT community. An exchange with J. Michael Bailey received media attention somewhat puzzling to all of the participants.[1]

Deirdre McCloskey spends her days reading, writing, and walking with her dog, Will Shakespeare. She is a new convert to Episcopalianism and post-Parker jazz.

Fields of study

McCloskey's major contributions since the 1960s are in the economic history of Britain, the quantification of historical inquiry, the rhetoric of economics, the rhetoric of the human sciences, economic methodology, virtue ethics, feminist economics, heterodox economics, the role of mathematics in economic analysis, and the use (and misuse) of significance testing in economics(S. T. Ziliak, ed., Measurement and Meaning in Economics: The Essential Deirdre McCloskey (2001)).

She argues that economists often celebrate "statistically significant" results while ignoring the economic significance of results.

Her main work now is on virtue ethics. Love she says is as important a virtue for economists to study as is efficiency or plain prudence. She discussed some of these issues in the inaugural James M. Buchanan Lecture at George Mason University on April 7, 2006. She said there, capitalism "is an ethically drenched human activity" which requires attention to all of the classical seven virtues, while economists usually focus exclusively on prudence. Her latest book The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce [2] is the first of a projected five-volume magnum opus.

Notes

  1. ^ Carey, Benedict (2007-08-21), "Criticism of a Gender Theory, and a Scientist Under Siege", New York Times {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ http://www.gmu.edu/centers/publicchoice/pdf%20links/dpaper4706.pdf

Books

  • [with Stephen T. Ziliak]The Cult of Statistical Significance: How the Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives (January 2008) University of Michigan Press
  • The Bourgeois Virtues : Ethics for an Age of Commerce (June 2006)
  • [with Arjo Klamer and Stephen Ziliak]The Economic Conversation (forthcoming 2008)
  • The Secret Sins of Economics (August 2002)
  • How to be Human* *Though an Economist (2000)
  • Crossing: A Memoir (September 1999) is McCloskey's account of her growing recognition (while a boy and man) of her female identity, and her transition — both surgical and social — into a woman (including her reluctant divorce from her wife). Following sex-reassignment surgery, the book describes her new life continuing her career as a female academic economist.
  • Measurement and Meaning in Economics: The Essential Deirdre McCloskey (1999) [edited by Stephen Ziliak]
  • The Vices of Economists, the Virtues of the Bourgeoisie (1996)
  • Knowledge and Persuasion in Economics (1994)
  • Second Thoughts: Myths and Morals of U.S. Economic History (1993)
  • A Bibliography of Historical Economics to 1980 (1990)
  • If You're So Smart: The Narrative of Economic Expertise (1990)
  • The Consequences of Economic Rhetoric (1988)
  • The Writing of Economics (1987) reprinted as Economical Writing (2000)
  • Econometric History (1987)
  • The Rhetoric of the Human Sciences: Language and Argument in Scholarship and Public Affairs (1987)
  • The Rhetoric of Economics (1985 & 1998)
  • The Applied Theory of Price (1982 & 1985)
  • Enterprise and Trade in Victorian Britain: Essays in Historical Economics (1981)
  • Economic Maturity and Entrepreneurial Decline: British Iron & Steel, 1870-1913 (1973)
  • Essays on a Mature Economy: Britain after 1840 (1971)

Articles

  • Modern Epistemology Against Analytic Philosophy: A Reply to Maki Journal of Economic Literature Vol. 33, No. 3 (Sep., 1995), pp. 1319-1323
  • The Rhetoric of Law and Economics Michigan Law Review Vol. 86, No. 4 (Feb., 1988), pp. 752-767
  • The Loss Function Has Been Mislaid: The Rhetoric of Significance Tests. The American Economic Review Vol. 75, No. 2, Papers and Proceedings of the Ninety-Seventh Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (May, 1985), pp. 201-205
  • The Rhetoric of Economics Journal of Economic Literature Vol. 21, No. 2 (Jun., 1983), pp. 481-517

See also

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