Prescott, Edward Christian
Edward Christian Prescott, 1940–, American economist, b. Glen Falls, N.Y., Ph.D. Carnegie Mellon Univ., 1967. Prescott has taught at Carnegie Mellon (1971–80), the Univ. of Minnesota (1980–98, 1999–2003), Arizona State Univ. (2003–), and other institutions. He also has been a senior adviser to the Research Dept., Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, since 1980 (senior monetary adviser since 2003). He received the 2004 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Finn Kydland for their joint contributions to dynamic microeconomics. Their study of government economic policy showed why, due to expectations and reactions to them, the best policies are often not implemented consistently over time. They also demonstrated microeconomic, supply-side influences on the business cycle, integrating theories of business cycles and of long-term economic growth.