Robert Sauer
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Robert M. Sauer, born in Brooklyn, New York, is a Professor of Economics at the University of Southampton in the UK. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor of Economics in Israel at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University. He completed his PhD in economics at New York University in 1995.
In 2003, Sauer founded, together with Corinne Parenti-Sauer, the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies (JIMS). JIMS is one of Israel's most successful nonprofit economic policy think tanks, focussing on economic policy analysis and education from a market-liberal perspective.
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[edit] Academic Career and Research
After completing his PhD in August 1995, Sauer moved from the US to Israel, where he was an Assistant Professor of Economics at Tel Aviv University and later at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In September 2005, Sauer was appointed to a Chair in Economics at the University of Southampton in the UK.
Sauer's academic research lies mainly in the fields of labour economics and applied econometrics; with a focus on labour force participation, job mobility, immigration, and simulated maximum likelihood (SML) estimation of dynamic panel data discrete choice models. In much of Sauer's research, data on economic outcomes are explained via the solution and structural estimation of dynamic programming (DP) problems. Sauer's doctoral dissertation advisor at NYU, Kenneth I. Wolpin, now Chair of the economics department at the University of Pennsylvania, is one of the pioneers of the DP structural estimation methodology.[1] Sauer has published studies using the structural DP methodology in leading economics journals such as the Journal of Political Economy, the Review of Economic Studies and the Journal of Labor Economics.
Over the last few years, Sauer has been concentrating on further developing a new SML algorithm that facilitates the estimation of DP and other complex econometric models involving discrete choices. Joint research projects with Michael P. Keane of the University of Technology Sydney, one of the originators of the algorithm along with Kenneth I. Wolpin, have been financially supported in the past by the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation, and are currently being supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in the United Kingdom.
[edit] Economic Policy Work
In 2003, while an Assistant Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Sauer co-founded with Corinne Sauer the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies (JIMS). With the help of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, JIMS quickly became one of Israel's most successful nonprofit economic policy think tanks.
In addition to regularly producing policy studies, JIMS calculates and publicizes Tax Freedom Day in Israel each year. JIMS is the Israel member of the Economic Freedom Network, led by the Fraser Institute in Canada, and is the co-publisher of Israel's entry in the Economic Freedom of the World index. JIMS also works closely with the International Policy Network based in London, and is a member of the Stockholm Network of European think tanks.
JIMS also runs a number of educational projects that are unique in Israel. JIMS regularly holds university student seminars on the foundations of economic liberalism, offering fellowships and stipends to participants. There are also seminars for working professionals and high school students. Most recently, JIMS has started teaching the principles of economics to elementary school students in a public religious girls school in Jerusalem.
[edit] Other Professional Activities
Some of Sauer's other professional activities include serving on the Board of Editors of Economic Affairs published by the Institute of Economic Affairs in London, serving on the Board of Academic Advisors of the Free Society Institute in Slovenia, and lecturing on the use of discrete choice models and simulation estimation at the Central European University in Budapest.
As a member of the Gerson Lehrman Group Council of Advisors (GLG Educator), Sauer has consulted for major international investment houses on the economic and political environment in Israel. In addition, Sauer has served as an economist expert witness in the US and has defended his opinions in US Federal Court.
[edit] Selected Publications
- Robert Sauer and Julian Morris (September 2007). What Determines the Supply of Open Source Software? The Relative Importance of Non-pecuniary Benefits, Future Monetary Rewards, and Type of Open Source License. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, forthcoming.
- Robert Sauer and Corinne Sauer (May 2007). Is it Possible to Have Cheaper Drugs and Preserve the Incentive to Innovate? The Benefits of Privatizing the Drug Approval Process. Journal of Technology Transfer, forthcoming.
- Robert Sauer and Adriana D. Kugler (July 2005). Doctors Without Borders? Re-licensing Requirements and Negative Selection in the Market for Physicians. Journal of Labor Economics, 23(3), 437-466.
- Robert Sauer (October 2004). Educational Financing and Lifetime Earnings. Review of Economic Studies, 71(3), 1189-1216.
- Robert Sauer, Yoram Weiss and Menachem Gotlibovski (July 2003). Immigration, Search, and Loss of Skill. Journal of Labor Economics, 21(3), 557-591.
- Robert Sauer (February 1998). Job Mobility and the Market for Lawyers. Journal of Political Economy, 106(1), 147-171.
[edit] Working Papers
- Robert Sauer and Michael P. Keane (December 2006). A Computationally Practical Simulation Estimation Algorithm for Dynamic Panel Data Models with Unobserved Endogenous State Variables (under revision, International Economic Review).
- Robert Sauer and Daniela del Boca (August 2006). Life Cycle Employment and Fertility Across Institutional Environments (under revision, European Economic Review).
- Robert Sauer and Michael P. Keane (September 2006). Classification Error in Dynamic Discrete Choice Models: Implications for Female Labour Supply Behaviour (under review).
- Robert Sauer and Sami H. Miaari (August 2006). The Labor Market Costs of Conflict: Closures, Foreign Workers and Palestinian Employment and Earnings (under review).
[edit] Notes
- ^ Because the methodology makes direct use of formal economic models in explaining economic data, it is computationally intensive and generally requires parametric assumptions for identification of model parameters. For these reasons, the methodology is often at the center of the debate on different empirical strategies in applied microeconomics. See the Introduction to the "JBES" Special Issue on Structural Estimation in Applied Microeconomics, Michael P. Keane and Kenneth I. Wolpin, Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Vol. 15, No. 2, Structural Estimation in Applied Microeconomics (Apr., 1997), pp. 111-114.
