Glenn David Ellison (born 1965) is an American economist who is the Gregory K. Palm Professor of Economics at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT) and an Elected Fellow of the Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory and

American Academy of Arts & Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other F ...

. He is the father of Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research.

Education and career

Ellison received an A.B. degree in mathematics from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

. He went on to

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

on a

Churchill Scholarship The Churchill Scholarship is awarded by the Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States to graduates of the more than one hundred colleges and universities invited to participate in the Churchill Scholarship Program, for the pursuit of res ...

and received an M.Phil. degree in economics in 1988. He then worked briefly as an Associate at Charles River Associates between 1988 and 1989. He received his Ph.D. in economics from MIT in 1992 under the supervision of

Drew Fudenberg Drew Fudenberg (born March 2, 1957) is a professor of economics at MIT. His research spans many aspects of game theory, including equilibrium theory, learning in games, evolutionary game theory, and many applications to other fields. Fudenberg ...

. After his doctorate, he became an assistant professor of economics at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

from 1992 to 1994. He moved to MIT in 1994 and became head of the Department of Economics between 2016 and 2017 and again since 2020. Ellison's research interests include

game theory Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions. It has applications in many fields of social science, and is used extensively in economics, logic, systems science and computer science. Initially, game theory addressed ...

industrial organization In economics, industrial organization is a field that builds on the theory of the firm by examining the structure of (and, therefore, the boundaries between) firms and markets. Industrial organization adds real-world complications to the per ...

, education, finance, economic geography, and academia.

Honors and awards

Ellison is a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

, the

Econometric Society The Econometric Society is an international society of academic economists interested in applying statistical tools in the practice of econometrics. It is an independent organization with no connections to societies of professional mathematicians o ...

, and the Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory, and has received several awards, including an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship and a fellowship from the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences. He has served on the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

Economics Panel and as a council member for the Econometric Society.

Personal life

Ellison married Sara Fisher Ellison, a senior lecturer in economics at MIT. They have three daughters, Caroline, Anna, and Kate. Caroline is known for her work as the CEO of Alameda Research, a defunct

cryptocurrency A cryptocurrency (colloquially crypto) is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. Individual coin ownership record ...

trading firm tied to the collapse of FTX, for which she has pleaded guilty to multiple financial crimes. Ellison spends time as a math coach for schoolchildren and wrote textbooks for the purpose.

References

External links

*Website at MIT: https://economics.mit.edu/people/faculty/glenn-ellison {{DEFAULTSORT:Ellison, Glenn 1965 births Living people MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences faculty American economists Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Alumni of Churchill College, Cambridge Economics journal editors Fellows of the Econometric Society Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Harvard College alumni