The new Center for the Economics of Human Development, a cross-disciplinary initiative to support quantitative research on the conditions that support human flourishing, will be launched at a May 30 event in Ida Noyes Hall.

Provost Eric Isaacs and Social Sciences Division Dean Mario Small will attend the launch event, which will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will feature research presentations by scholars including Flavio Cunha, PhD’07, assistant professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania.  

James J. Heckman, a Nobel laureate and the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, will serve as the center’s faculty director. He said the center will support work by UChicago faculty, students and visiting scholars. Its mission is to develop knowledge that fosters human development by “identifying sources of disadvantage and promoting equality of opportunity,” Heckman said. He added that the center will “produce theoretical and empirical research that integrates ideas and methods across the social and natural sciences to create rigorous evidence for public policy.”

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