Gary Sheldon Fields (born October 1, 1946) is an American

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

, the John P. Windmuller Professor of International and Comparative Labor and Professor of Economics at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. Fields has performed extensive research in

labor economics Labour economics seeks to understand the functioning and dynamics of the markets for wage labour. Labour is a commodity that is supplied by labourers, usually in exchange for a wage paid by demanding firms. Because these labourers exist as pa ...

and

development economics Development economics is a branch of economics that deals with economic aspects of the development process in low- and middle- income countries. Its focus is not only on methods of promoting economic development, economic growth and structural c ...

, in particular

labor mobility Labor or worker mobility is the geographical and occupational movement of workers. Impediments to mobility are easily divided into two distinct classes with one being personal and the other being systemic. Personal impediments include physical loc ...

, which was rewarded with the IZA Prize in Labor Economics in 2014.

Education

Fields obtained his

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

(1967),

M.A. A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

(1969) and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

(1972) from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

in economics.

Academic career

Fields joined

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

as an

assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

of economics in 1972, being promoted to

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

in 1976 and directing the Economic Growth Center from 1977 to 1978. In 1978 he moved to

as associate professor of industrial and labor relations, becoming full professor in 1982 and being endowed with the John P. Windmuller Chair of International and Comparative Labor in 2008. At Cornell University he has been director of the ILR International Initiative (1991–94) and of the Program on Globalization and the Workplace (2007–10) as well as chairman of Department of Labor Economics and the Department of International and Comparative Labor. He has also worked as an advisor for the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is one of the firs ...

Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank to promote social and economic development in Asia. The bank is headquartered in Metro Manila, Philippines and maintains 31 field offices around the world. The bank was establishe ...

Inter-American Development Bank The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB or IADB) is an international development finance institution headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States of America. It serves as one of the leading sources of development financing for the countri ...

Global Development Network The Global Development Network (GDN) is a worldwide network of research and policy institutes working to provide new perspectives to the development challenges of our time. A spin-off of the World Bank, GDN works to make policy-relevant research a ...

, and the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

, private companies like

Deloitte Deloitte is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of employees, and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along wi ...

and governments.

Research

Fields' fields of academic interest include

, and the economics of the workplace and management, although his current research concentrates on

economic mobility Economic mobility is the ability of an individual, family or some other group to improve (or lower) their economic status—usually measured in income. Economic mobility is often measured by movement between income quintiles. Economic mobilit ...

, labor market models, and labor markets in

developing economies A developing country is a sovereign state with a less-developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to developed countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreemen ...

. The bibliographic database

IDEAS/RePEc Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) is a collaborative effort of hundreds of volunteers in many countries to enhance the dissemination of research in economics. The heart of the project is a decentralized database of working papers, preprints, ...

lists him among the top 5% authors in economics according to a number of metrics, e.g. ''average rank score'' and ''number of citations''. His most-cited research article, published in 1975, analyzes the

unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work du ...

and

underemployment Underemployment is the underuse of a worker because their job does not use their skills, offers them too few hours, or leaves the worker idle. It is contrasted with unemployment, where a person lacks a job at all despite wanting one. Examples ...

least developed countries The least developed countries (LDCs) are developing countries listed by the United Nations that exhibit the lowest indicators of socioeconomic development. The concept of LDCs originated in the late 1960s and the first group of LDCs was listed b ...

in a quantity adjustment framework by making extensions to the Harris-Todaro model of rural-urban migration, namely (1) allowances for more generalized job search behavior, an urban traditional sector, preferential hiring by educational level, and labor turnover considerations. A predicted unemployment rate much lower than in the initial model and more in line with empirical observations is the result of these modifications, explaining the appeal of Fields' labor market model in development economics. In another highly cited article, co-authored with Efe A. Ok and published in 1996, Fields defines the concept of

income mobility Economic mobility is the ability of an individual, family or some other group to improve (or lower) their economic status—usually measured in income. Economic mobility is often measured by movement between income quintiles. Economic mobility ...

and develops a measure of income mobility which is additively decomposable into its two sources, namely the transfer of income among individuals within a given structure and the change in total income, e.g. due to economic growth or contraction. His most recent work centers on the

working poor The working poor are working people whose incomes fall below a given poverty line due to low-income jobs and low familial household income. These are people who spend at least 27 weeks in a year working or looking for employment, but remain und ...

, defined as individuals working (often as self-employed) but earning less than $2 (PPP) per day, and their attempts to enter wage-paying employment or improve their earnings within self-employment.''Gary Fields: The link between jobs, unemployment, and poverty.'' Video published by the World Bank Jobs Group on YouTube on November 17th, 2014 and accessed on March 24th, 2015.
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References

External links

Profile of Gary Fields at the ILR School
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fields, Gary 21st-century American economists American labor economists American development economists Cornell University faculty University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni Living people 1946 births