Chad Syverson

Chad Syverson
Professor of Economics and Charles M. Harper Faculty Fellow

Recent
Publications

  • "What Determines Productivity?," Journal of Economic Literature (2011).
  • With Enghin Atalay, Ali Hortaçsu, and Jimmy Roberts, "On the Network Structure of Production," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2011).
  • With Lucia Foster and John Haltiwanger, "Reallocation, Firm Turnover, and Efficiency: Selection on Productivity or Profitability?," American Economic Review (2008).
  • With Austan Goolsbee, "How Do Incumbents Respond to the Threat of Entry? Evidence from the Major Airlines," Quarterly Journal of Economics (2008).
  • With Steve Levitt, "Market Distortions when Agents are Better Informed: The Value of Information in Real Estate Transactions," Review of Economics and Statistics (2008).

Chad Syverson's research spans several topics, with a particular focus on the interactions of firm structure, market structure, and productivity. His work has been published in several top journals and has earned several National Science Foundation awards, Olin Foundation grants, and a Brookings Dissertation Fellowship.

"My engineering background definitely spurred my research interest in productivity. I like to visit factories and investigate how things are put together, what can go wrong when they are, and what factors influence firms' operating success (or lack thereof)."

Syverson is on the editorial board of several journals and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He also serves on the board of the Chicago Census Research Data Center. Prior to these appointments, Syverson was a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and a mechanical engineer co-op for Loral Defense Systems and Unisys Corporation.

He earned two bachelor's degrees in 1996 from the University of North Dakota, one in economics and one in mechanical engineering. He earned a master's degree in 1998 and a PhD in 2001, both in economics from the University of Maryland. Syverson joined the Chicago Booth faculty in 2008.