Brookings Appoints Charles Schultze to John C. and Nancy D. Whitehead Chair

Charles L. Schultze, a distinguished economist and public policy analyst, has been named as the recipient of The John C. and Nancy D. Whitehead Chair at the Brookings Institution.

Schultze, a senior fellow emeritus in the Economic Studies program, has been involved with the Brookings Institution since 1968. He was director of Economic Studies from 1987-90 and a senior fellow from 1968-77 and 1981-87. During the Carter Administration, he served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. In the 1960s, Schultze was assistant director of the U.S. Bureau of the Budget from 1962-64, and director from 1965-67.

As chair holder, Schultze is working on two current projects at Brookings: The Role of Social Norms in Promoting (and Sometimes Hindering) Economic Efficiency and The Bell Curve Study.

The Role of Social Norms project focuses on the relationship between individuals and business firms and the influence of behavioral values upon its relationship. His research will examine how social norms develop and impact the American economy. In addition, the project will address the notion that American society has experienced a dramatic clash between traditional social norms and economic adjustments over the past decade.

With Brookings Senior Fellow William Dickens and Thomas Kane of Harvard University, Schultze is also examining the analysis and methodology used to formulate the main arguments of The Bell Curve by Richard Hernstein and Charles Murray. In particular, the focus is on how the authors of this controversial book used IQ as an economic stratifier and an indicator of success. The preliminary observations were published in the summer 1995 Brookings Review article entitled Does The Bell Curve Ring True?: A Closer Look at the Portrait of American Society.

Schultze has authored or co-authored dozens of books and articles on economics. Most recently, he co-edited a book with Henry J. Aaron titled Setting Domestic Priorities: What Can Government Do? He also completed a study entitled, Memos to the President: A Guide through Macroeconomics for the Busy Policymaker (Brookings, 1992). Among his better known works, several of which have been written in cooperation with other Brookings scholars, are: An American Trade Strategy: Options for the 1990s, co-edited with Brookings Senior Fellow Robert Z. Lawrence (Brookings, 1990); American Living Standards: Threats and Challenges, co-edited with Robert Z. Lawrence and Robert E. Litan (Brookings, 1988); Barriers to European Growth: A Transatlantic View, with Robert Z. Lawrence (Brookings, 1987); Economic Choices 1987 (Brookings, 1986); and Other Times, Other Places (Brookings, 1986).

Schultze also has been a frequent contributor to such publications as American Economic Review, The Brookings Review, and Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. In 1984, he served as president of the American Economic Association.

Schultze, a native of Alexandria, Virginia, received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from Georgetown University in 1948 and 1950, respectively, and was awarded a Ph.D in economics from the University of Maryland in 1960.

The Whitehead Chair was endowed in 1992 in honor of then Brookings chairman John C. Whitehead and his wife, Nancy D. Whitehead, and their contributions to the corporate, government and journalistic world.

John Whitehead is chairman of AEA Investors Inc. in New York City, and served as Deputy Secretary of State from 1985 to 1989. He was chairman of the Brookings Board of Trustees from 1992 to 1994, after joing the Board in 1989, and was elected an honorary Trustee in 1994. He retired as co-chairman and senior partner of Goldman, Sachs & Company in 1984, after 37 years with that firm.

Nancy Dickerson Whitehead is a prominent former national network news correspondent and the founder of Television Corporation of America. She began her journalism career as a producer of CBS News in 1956 and became the network’s first female Washington correspondent in 1960.