A Revolving Door

The addition of four new tenured professors normally solves--at least for a few years--the personnel problems of a Harvard department.

But not in the Economics Department.

Last year, the department tenured four young professors, But this year, because of an unusual series of coincidences, Harvard is still very much in the market for economists.

"We have had a succession of unlucky breaks," says Robert Dorfman, Wells Professor of Political Economy.

These unlucky breaks include: the departure of one professor for marital reasons; the acceptance by another of the deanship of the faculty: and a sticky situation in which a scholar said he would come and then changed his mind.

In addition, two professors have died in the last year.

All told, the past two years have seen a veritable revolving door in Littauer Hall, through which the department has picked up six tenured professors, but also lost six--making it a period of unusual volatility in the department. And other economics departments--wary of Harvard's reputation for raiding other faculties--know it.

"Around the country in economic circles [Harvard's problems] become note worthy because you know Harvard is going to be making a number of senior offers," says Andrew Postelwaite, chair man of the Economics Department at the University of Pennsylvania.

What the net effects of this transformation will, be at Harvard, however, is not exactly clear right now. Harvard is specifically looking to appoint specialists in macroeconomics and economic theory, and an area specialist. Most professors in the department say these current holes are strictly coincidental and that the department should be back to normal.

Some go up and some go down but this department, it seems to me, has the capacity to make appointments," says Lamont University Professor John I. Dunlop, a labor economist. "This is one of the small number of departments that have done very well over the past 80 years."

One of the reasons for the department's stability is its large numbers. With more than 30 tenured professors, the departure of a few doesn't have a large short-term effect.

In addition, the nature of modern economics makes it unlikely that the current draught will sharply change the focus of the department. Because of increasing specialization in the economics field, professors say, the department will seek out scholars in fields vacated by departing professors.

This means that the appointment of another theorist is probably in line following the departure for Stanford of theorist David Kreps, and the tenuring of an area specialist is pending following the death of Middle East specialist A J. Meyer and the retirement of Soviet expert Abram Bergson.

Professors refuse to discuss specific tenure appointments under consideration.

While professors say the department should not suffer any long-term adverse affects from the current personnel shuffle some admit to some short term hassles because of it.

Several junior faculty say that staffing of some mid level courses could present a problem next fall because of the depletion of ranks. This is because the department will unlikely come up with any more tenure appointments by the fall.

While the department has generally been able to reach consensus in the past on tenure appointments, professors say that they have had more problems recently in coming to agreement about candidates. In addition, they have been struck occaisionally simply by bad luck.

Princeton macroeconomist John Taylor, for instance, accepted a Harvard tenure offer last spring, but subsequently changed his mind and picked Stanford.