Whitney K. Newey
For “a body of work that has shaped the field of semiparametric econometrics, guided both econometricians and empirical researchers over several decades, and helped lay the foundations for modern machine learning-based inference.”
Whitney K. Newey was awarded the Erwin Plein Nemmers Prize in Economics, a prize of $300,000, in recognition of a body of work that has shaped the field of semiparametric econometrics, guided both econometricians and empirical researchers over several decades, and helped lay the foundations for modern machine learning-based inference.
Newey, the Ford Professor of Economics, Emeritus at MIT, has been a leading figure in econometric theory for more than four decades, shaping both research and training in the field. He has done pathbreaking work on variance estimation, nonparametric simultaneous equations, consumer surplus estimation with general heterogeneity, and debiased machine learning. His 1994 Econometrica paper gave general formulae for the asymptotic variance of semiparametric estimators, especially for those depending on nonparametric regressions with an approximately linear representation, series estimators for these with asymptotic theory, and showed orthogonality of any nonparametric components that are profiled out of extremum estimators.
He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the Econometric Society.
Newey will visit Northwestern during the 2026-27 academic year to engage in programming with Economics faculty and students.