UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State Professor of Economics S. Nageeb Ali has been named a fellow of the Econometric Society.
Ali was among 25 new fellows to be honored this year by the international organization, which for more than 90 years has promoted the advancement of economic theory within the realm of statistics and mathematics.
Since the Econometric Society’s founding in 1931, only 1,254 total fellows have been elected. Of that group, 86 have won the Nobel Prize in economics.
"Election as a fellow of the Econometric Society is a recognition of important contributions to economics,” said Larry Samuelson, president of the Econometric Society, in a press release. “The fellows represent the highest authority of the society. I congratulate them on this great honor.”
Ali joins six other Penn State faculty members who have been named fellows — Herman Bierens, Kalyan Chatterjee, Keisuke Hirano, Kala Krishna, Vijay Krishna and Neil Wallace.
Ali was nominated by both existing fellows and the organization’s nominating committee. From there, he needed to secure at least a quarter of the vote from all active fellows worldwide.
“All in all, I’m really pleased to learn that these scholars appreciate my work,” Ali said. “It’s a great honor, given that the Econometric Society includes many of the profession’s most distinguished scholars. I was both happy and surprised to receive the news, especially given how selective the process is.”
Among the society’s duties are publishing the journals Econometrica, Quantitative Economics and Theoretical Economics, as well as its Monograph Series, and holding annual scientific meetings in six regions of the world and a World Congress once every five years.
“Fellows have no formal duties beyond participating in the Econometric Society by voting on new fellows and officers, but I expect that there will be opportunities to support the intellectual community,” Ali said.
A lifelong student of economic theory, which he calls “a powerful toolkit for making sense of the world,” Ali focuses much of his research on voting behavior, particularly formalizing the forces that drive political polarization when policies “benefit some but hurt others.”
“I am also interested in strategic mechanisms that lead to the concentration of political power,” he said. “Another strand of my work models issues of consumer data and privacy, looking at the effects of regulations that give consumers control over their data. That strand is particularly relevant in the digital economy today where firms have an abundance of information about consumers and can use that information to set prices.”
When he reflected on his career and milestones like the fellowship, Ali said he feels pure gratitude.
“Gratitude to my co-authors who accompany me on joint discoveries, to the Ph.D. students who teach me new ideas, to the undergraduates who bring questions and curiosity to the classroom, and to the Penn State Economics Department, known globally for its excellence in research and remarkable collegiality,” he said. “Penn State has been a strong supporter of my research, and I am grateful to have it as my intellectual home.”