Nobel Economist Christopher Sims Speaks at Trinity

By Blue Mohr

Renowned economist Christopher A. Sims, 75, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2011, discussed his journey as an economist during a public lecture Wednesday night at Trinity.

Starting out as a mathematics major at Harvard University, Sims read about studies on quantification, storage, and communication of information and wanted to apply it to “infinite memory channels," a mathematical concept regarding the flow and storage of information.

His advisor could not read his undergraduate thesis and gave it to electrical engineering professors to evaluate, who then tried to convince Sims to become an electrical engineer. By that time, however, he had decided to follow the influence of his family and become an economist.

Sims told the story of his grandfather, who he counts as “a great influence” on him and his decision to become an economist. His grandfather, who eventually took the name William Moriss Leiserson, was originally from Estonia, then a part of Russia. His family left Russia for Germany and then the USA in 1890, when Leiserson was 7. Leiserson never graduated high school, but became a productive member of society, and later an economist, as well.

“It seems to me this holds some lessons for thinking about our country today—We are a country of immigrants, and it’s one of our great strengths," said Sims, to applause from the audience.

Sims went on to earn a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. He now teaches at Princeton University. In the field of Macroeconometrics, his most significant contribution has been his fiscal theory of the price level and the theory of rational inattention.

The fiscal theory of the price level is the idea that the government's fiscal policy influences and affects price levels; therefore, it is important for the government to run a balanced budget. The theory of rational inattention has to do with the way people make economic decisions. When it is too costly to get information for a certain decision, decision makers may rationally act on incomplete information.

Amani Canada, sophomore environmental and geosciences major, was among the audience. S he had taken Microeconomics as part of the environmental studies major, but felt that the lecture was more advanced than what she had learned. “[I] thought it’d be more… entry-level," she said.

“His examples were really good,” she added. “I’m like, thank you for not just being like, oh, people are irrational, they just like what they like for whatever reason.”

During the Q&A, someone asked Sims whether he thought his theories would have an impact within his field. “Sure," responded Sims. "I always think my theories are right, and that the truth wins out in the end.”