Sims, Christopher Albert
Christopher Albert Sims, 1942–, American economist, b. Washington, D.C., Ph.D. Harvard (1968). Sims has taught at Harvard (1967–70), the Univ. of Minnesota (1970–90), Yale (1990–99), and Princeton (1999–). A proponent of using vector autoregression (a type of statistical model) in macroeconomic econometrics, he has used it to study historical data to identify and analyze the effects of unexpected economic events, or shocks, on the economy. His approach has been influential in macroeconomic research, and also has had an effect on economic policymaking by governments and central banks. Sims was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2011 with Thomas J. Sargent for their separate empirical research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy.