Gerald Jaynes

Gerald Jaynes is the A. Whitney Griswold Professor of Economics, Black Studies, and Urban Studies. Jaynes’ interdisciplinary approach to research and teaching has contributed to a range of areas including economic theory, history, race relations, the economics of immigration, and the development of graduate study in Black Studies. In economics, he originated the Jaynes-Hellwig-Glosten Allocation an equilibrium outcome in theoretical models that arises in market contexts where agents trade under imperfect information. His contributions to the economics of immigration and race include research and testimony before Congress and the U.S. Civil Rights Commission where he has been a strong proponent of the view immigration bestows positive benefits on the American economy. In history, Jaynes’ study of the reorganization of labor in the American South following slavery reshaped scholars’ understanding of the rise of sharecropping. His coauthored book A Common Destiny: Blacks and American Society sponsored by the National Research Council, the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences is widely viewed as the most comprehensive study of its nature during the second half of the 20th Century. During the 1990s, Jaynes spearheaded the development and implementation of the acclaimed Doctoral program in Black Studies at Yale (known for its commitment to interdisciplinary scholarship by requiring all graduate students be jointly admitted in Black Studies and one of 15 partner departments and programs). His current research in economics integrates behavioral economics and game theory into a theory of economic discrimination (Constitutional and Market Imperatives: Minorities and Women in the US Economy), forthcoming University of California Press. Jaynes earned the doctorate in economics from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He was an assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, has chaired Yale’s Department of Black Studies multiple times, and served in many public capacities including a legislative aid in the Illinois State Senate, a consultant to federal and local government agencies, and he has lectured at many universities and forums around the world. His research has been cited internationally within forums such as legislative bodies and courts including the United States Supreme Court. He has appeared on radio and television shows, including The NBC Today Show.