A. Michael Spence : An Oral History
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Mike Spence, the Philip H. Knight Professor and Dean, Emeritus, at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and a Nobel laureate in Economic Sciences, shares memories of his time at Stanford as a professor in the Department of Economics in the 1970s and as dean of the school from 1990 to 1999. He begins by describing his upbringing in Canada, his love of hockey, and his path to a liberal arts education at Princeton. He recalls his time as a Rhodes Scholar and his PhD studies at Harvard, including working with Tom Schelling, Richard Zeckhauser, and Kenneth Arrow. He describes his research on signaling and markets, product differentiation, and economic growth; his approach to teaching; and the circumstances that led him to move into senior administrative roles. In discussing his time as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard and dean of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford, Spence talks about challenges, accomplishments, and institutional differences and reflects on change over time in business education.
- Summary
- Growing up in Toronto • Complications of American and Canadian citizenship during the Vietnam War era • Family background • Family names • Hockey and playing on Canadian club teams • Decision to pursue academics more intensively than hockey • Change over time and international differences in hockey as a sport • Influence of high school coach Donald Fawcett • Decision to pursue a liberal arts education in the United States; recruitment to Princeton as a university scholar and hockey player • Princeton hockey and memories of coach Johnny Wilson • Studying philosophy in undergraduate years • Overlap between economics and philosophy • Canadian Rhodes Scholarship despite being at an American institution • Continued sense of liberal arts at Oxford • Studying mathematics in Magdalen College and influence of tutor Ian Macdonald • Differences between American and British school traditions • Social life at Oxford among Rhodes scholars • Decision to pursue a PhD at Harvard • Thoughts of quitting mid-PhD • Story of how advisor Dick Zeckhauser convinced him to stay, including getting him involved in a faculty seminar at the then-new Kennedy School • Statistical discrimination and markets • Influence of George Akerlof’s The Market for Lemons • Adverse selection and insurance • Erving Goffman’s concepts of signals and indices • Signaling in markets • Dissertation research on markets with informational gaps • Reflections on how digital technology is affecting marketplace structure; example of tourism in Italy • Thoughts on statistical discrimination and women in the workplace • Women in economics and academia • American higher education system and the signaling phenomenon • Interaction of signaling and networks • Alumni networks at elite universities, including Stanford • Memories of Ken Arrow • Tom Schelling’s research interests and unique way of thinking • Tom Schelling and Richard Zeckhauser as advisors • Coming to Stanford in 1973 • Stanford’s Department of Economics in the 1970s, including colleagues, teaching industrial organization, and departmental culture • Decision to return to East Coast; faculty appointment in Harvard’s Department of Economics with a joint appointment in the Business School • Business Economics Program with John Lintner and Mike Porter • Department head and invitation to become dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences • Harvard students, including Penny Pritzker, Bill Gates, and Steve Ballmer • Approach to teaching • Changes to economics education and teaching • Receiving the John Bates Clark Medal • Advice from Myron Scholes following the Nobel award • Transition to administration as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences • Structure of Harvard administration • Derek Bok as the president of Harvard • Efforts to improve the environment for junior faculty at Harvard while dean • Harvard’s appointment and promotions process • Rigors of ad hoc committee meetings and difficulty appointing young faculty • Challenges in setting faculty and staff salaries; faculty retention • Diversity efforts at Harvard • Reflections on time as a Harvard dean • Family desire to move back to Northern California • Recruitment by Provost Jim Rosse to become dean of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business (GSB) • Reputation of the GSB • Challenges facing the GSB and business education in the 1990s • Preparing young faculty to teach executive education courses; expanding offerings in entrepreneurship and venture capital • Stanford’s location in Silicon Valley • Legacy of Arjay Miller at the GSB, including GSB’s unique financial relationship with the wider university • Establishing relationships with alumni • Transition to leading a smaller school focused on professional education • Effort to integrate younger faculty into the executive education programs at the GSB • Challenge to the Stanford model of business education with emphasis on social science disciplines • GSB and the beginnings of the Internet • Reflections on the relationship between the GSB and Silicon Valley and the growth of Silicon Valley • Process for curriculum change • Introducing courses and programs focused on global business • Building the Schwab Residential Center • Designing a fundraising strategy with Bob Bass • Architecture and design of the Schwab Residential Center • Interdisciplinary collaborations with other schools at Stanford • Stanford leadership: Jerry Lieberman, Gerhard Casper, Condoleezza Rice, Jim Rosse • Stanford’s financial struggles at the end of Don Kennedy’s presidency • Decision to step away from deanship • Achievements while dean • Hoover Institution fellow and continued relationship with Stanford • Research on development in the digital era • Commission on Growth and Development • Argument in The Next Convergence looking at growth in the post-World War II era • Recent work on multidimensional growth patterns, including study of digital technologies • Reflections on different internet regulation approaches in the US and China • Work on market structure and product differentiation and application to the economics of digital technologies • Winning the Nobel Prize
Description
| Type of resource | sound recording-nonmusical, text, still image |
|---|---|
| Extent | 4 audio files; 1 text file; 1 photograph |
| Place | Stanford (Calif.) |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
| Date created | January 16, 2020 - 2020-03-19 |
| Language | English |
| Digital origin | born digital |
Creators/Contributors
| Interviewee | Spence, Michael, 1943- | |
|---|---|---|
| Creator | Spence, Michael, 1943- | |
| Interviewer | Marine-Street, Natalie J. | |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Subjects
| Subject | Spence, A. Michael |
|---|---|
| Subject | Stanford University. Graduate School of Business |
| Subject | Stanford University. Department of Economics |
| Subject | Deans (Education) |
| Genre | Interview |
Bibliographic information
| Biographical Profile | A. Michael Spence is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and Philip H. Knight Professor and Dean, Emeritus, at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. He is the chairman of an independent Commission on Growth and Development, created in 2006 and focused on growth and poverty reduction in developing countries. In 2001, he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to the analysis of markets with asymmetric information. He served as Philip H. Knight Professor and dean of the Stanford Business School from 1990 to 1999. As dean, he oversaw the finances, organization, and educational policies of the school. He taught at Stanford as an associate professor of economics from 1973 to 1975. From 1975 to 1990, he served as professor of economics and business administration at Harvard University, holding a joint appointment in its Business School and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. In 1983, he was named chairman of the Economics Department and George Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration. From 1984 to 1990, Spence served as the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard, overseeing Harvard College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the Division of Continuing Education. He is a member of the American Economic Association and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometric Society. |
|---|---|
| Transcript |
|
| Finding Aid | |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/hw766xh9410 |
| Location | SC0932 |
| Repository | Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections and University Archives |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- The materials are open for research use and may be used freely for non-commercial purposes with an attribution. For commercial permission requests, please contact the Stanford University Archives (universityarchives@stanford.edu).
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
Collection
Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2022
View other items in this collection in SearchWorksAlso listed in
Loading usage metrics...