A lot of it was direct advice on papers and ideas. - Jeremy Stein. Share Obituary: Alberto F. Alesina. To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Alberto F. Alesina please visit our,

Of Boston, passed away on May 23, 2020. Recommend Alberto's obituary to your friends. Not everyone agreed with him – I’m quite sure there were times that he didn’t agree with himself – but nobody could ignore the work he and his followers did.On a personal level, Alberto was a model scholar. During recruiting season, he would email me multiple times a day with great enthusiasm (and prolific misspelling) about how he was in the process of charming this one or that one into coming to Harvard—we traded lots of jokes and video clips about Glengarry Glen Ross and the mantra of  “always be closing”. Alberto was a highly decorated economist and on the short list of people likely to win a Nobel prize. Alberto Alesina, the economist who had conquered America, until he became the director of the economic department of Harvard University, from 2003 to 2006, who suddenly disappeared on May … According to Lawrence Summers, he was one of the leading political economists of his generation, publishing … You can still show your support by sending flowers directly to the family, or plant a tree in memory of Alberto F. Alesina. - Amartya Sen. “Bloody hell, Ben, are you still working on this universalism nonsense? To us, he was our brilliant, warm, funny, close co-author, and friend. Alesina, 63, had headed the economic department at Harvard from 2003 to 2006. And I will be forever inspired by you. You can still show your support by sending flowers directly to the family, or plant a tree in memory of Alberto F. Alesina. He was generous with his time to everyone who approached him. Alesina, 63, … - Sam Peltzman, Alberto Alesina. Both have the quality of going against the grain but only because the data took him there. His long-time colleague and friend Larry Summers wrote that before him, “there was no academic field of … We had offices on the same corridor—for many years right next to one another--and I loved hearing his laugh echo down the hallway. At the door of his office in Harvard, a poster of a skier  on the slopes of Jackson Hole reads: "College degree, good job, big house ... We all make mistakes!". The Economics Department mourns the loss of Professor Alberto Alesina, Nathaniel Ropes Professor of Political Economy, who passed away on May 23rd, 2020. Whether it was how elections affect monetary policy, or why there is so often divided government in America, or why stabilizations are delayed, or why the welfare state looks so different in Europe and America, or how the plow changed the role of women in society, or dozens of other disparate and intriguing questions, Alberto trained his endless curiosity and boundless energy – and enormous following of younger scholars – on these topics and brought forth fascinating arguments and evidence. Harvard University’s Alberto Alesina died suddenly of a heart attack on May 23.. Barcelona, Juventus, and the Patriots. Services and Interment will be private.

April 29, 1957 - May 23, 2020 04/29/1957 05/23/2020. Some of that was career-changing, as when he convinced me that, of course, that silly idea on capital cities that QA Do and I had been playing around with would interest economists, are you crazy? To report the news is the website of the newspaper in via Solferino. I was very fortunate in having him at the end of the corridor in which I have my own office, and we got the chance to talk quite frequently. Go off your fears and the beaten tracks, follow the great ideas. © 2017-2020 Tribute Archive. Tribute Wall Obituary … Today, it is an established and flourishing area of science. We use cookies (opens in new window) for a number of reasons, such as keeping FT Sites reliable and secure, personalising content and ads, providing social media features and to analyse how our Sites … Alberto Alesina. And when you were in a bind,  he gained your trust and pushed you to try again. We shared a love for opera and fun dinners. Every moment that we got to share on Alberto’s intellectual odyssey was exciting and illuminating. That same spirit permeated the seminars that Alberto attended. By the way, you and Anke should come over for dinner again!” Such or similar was the weekly opening line with which Alberto greeted me before the political economy lunch or whenever we gathered in his office. Alberto F. Alesina

Of Boston, passed away on May 23, 2020. He was the chair of the department from 2003-2006, a member of the National Bureau for Economic Research, the Centre for Economic Policy Research, and the Econometric Society. Go off your fears and the beaten tracks, follow the great ideas. In these days of physical isolation, it is one of the images of him that I most treasure. I would occasionally send a graduate student interested in Political Economy to talk with him, and I could count on getting a happy phone call or email in return, expressing his enthusiasm for the person’s promise as an academic and for the prospect of working together. Perhaps Alberto's secret was  knowing how to reach out to whoever was less strong than him, to be humane in the academia,  where appearing fragile is seen as a symptom of weak ideas. “There Are Few Things More Exciting Than Learning Something New and Important About Humanity”: Alesina’s Scientific Odyssey, It is hard to imagine the field of political economy without Alberto Alesina. All the more reason, then, to mourn the untimely death of Harvard University economist Alberto Alesina, this year’s co-winner of the Manhattan Institute’s Hayek Book Prize. As we all know there has been an obsession with government budget deficits since the crisis of 2008. A free-spirited economist, by Stefanie Stantcheva and Elias Papaioannou, “There Are Few Things More Exciting Than Learning Something New and Important About Humanity”: Alesina’s Scientific Odyssey, by Edward Glaeser, It is hard to imagine the field of political economy without Alberto Alesina, by Lawrence Summers, Tribute to Alberto Alesina, by Gita GopinathIMF Finance and Development, June 1st, 2020, Enrico Di Gregorio, Matteo Paradisi, Edoardo Teso, Michela Carlana, Pierfrancesco Mei, Armando Miano, Giorgio Saponaro, Marco Tabellini, Littauer Center1805 Cambridge Street Cambridge, MA 02138 Phone (617) 495-2144 Fax (617) 495-7730, Department FAQOnline ResourcesFinancial Administration. He also had a great influence on students and later when they became colleagues. The Economics Department mourns the loss of Professor Alberto Alesina, Nathaniel Ropes Professor of Political Economy, who passed away on May 23rd, 2020. The field of political economy has lost a giant. - Stefanie Stantcheva and Elias Papaioannou, When I think of Alberto, what comes to mind first is his warmth, his humor, and his obvious affection for others. As great a scholar as he was, Alberto never took himself too seriously. I can tell this mainly from the professional literature, since I knew him only slightly. One might say it’s not a bad way to go, for somebody who loved mountains and … There he was, the intellectual giant who had founded and shaped the field for decades, yet he never appeared to think of students or clueless junior faculty like myself as lesser people. I immediately think of his work on the impact of cultural factors on the size of government and also on the different fiscal effects of taxes and spending. His students and seminar participants have lost the most rewarding mentor they could find. Alberto will continue to have a major presence in my thinking about what made Littauer such an attractive place. Tribute Wall Obituary … Alberto’s ideas and his incredible creativity and originality will stay with us forever, but the loss of him leaving way too early is impossible to put into words. I remember last winter when you welcomed me in your office, generously granting it to me as a visitor: how much I miss sitting at your desk, your books and the picture of the Mont Blanc behind me. Copyright © 2020 The President and Fellows of Harvard College. I also learned a lot from him about how to think about culture in the context of economic analysis. - Ignazio Angeloni, Perhaps Alberto's secret was  knowing how to reach out to whoever was less strong than him, to be humane in the academia,  where appearing fragile is seen as a symptom of weak ideas. Alberto’s devotion to skiing was legendary---and the students took note of it. The economist Alberto Alesina, a professor at Harvard University and signed by the "Corriere della Sera", died of a heart attack while hiking in the United States. After the international backlash against austerity, this is the counterblast. - Eric Maskin. May he rest in peace. I still pass on to students and friends the words of encouragement that he always gave me before important talks – “Remember: don’t screw up!” – though I cannot add his inimitable laugh and Italian accent... - Filipe Campante, Alberto, I met you in 2004 during a seminar and I just wondered how one could think so freely, simply and elegantly. Today Mr Rogoff advises spending more. Services and Interment will be private.

. His presence in our corner of Littauer added laughs and warmth to social interactions. One might say it’s not a bad way to go, for somebody who loved mountains … His seminars were joyous journeys into an intellectual unknown where the tools of economics were used to understand the most basic questions of politics, economics, and culture. In some ways, Alberto looked like the typical, somewhat-rumpled academic. To Economics, he was a giant & driving force of Political Economy which grew under his lead. But, for reasons you couldn’t at first put your finger on, he was a lot more elegant than most academics. Services and Interment will be private.

April 29, 1957 - May 23, 2020 04/29/1957 05/23/2020. He is famous for a variety of reasons, but … Alberto Alesina passed away a couple of days ago, while on a hike with his wife. - Gita Gopinath. - Pol Antras, Alberto was a phenomenal scholar. Alberto is the person most responsible for its emergence. - Ben Enke. He had been full of life then and so he remained. Instead, he engaged and deeply cared in a way I had rarely encountered before. Sadly, Alesina … I cherished our frequent discussions about economics and about European politics, but also our more mundane conversations about F.C. The revival of empirical research in the field owes a lot to him. He felt obliged to point out obvious empirical shortcomings, which he suggested would lead to arrest or imprisonment by some nefarious group call the “identification police,” but he had little interest in sinking down to their level. He was the chair of the … Then, on careful observation, you’d see that he was wearing an Armani suit. - Edward Glaeser, Alberto was such a role model for how to treat one another. Experiencing Alberto interact with students and colleagues was a mind-blowing experience. He had a knack for finding important questions, figuring out how to ask them, and coming up with interesting answers. He was the founder of the NBER's political economy program and was an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometric Society. We will miss him terribly. He was the pre-eminent figure in political economy in his generation. Recently, the economics profession lost one of its leading lights — Harvard professor Alberto Alesina. I, like numerous others, have lost a dear friend, who worked hard, played hard, and cared deeply about his colleagues and students. But Alberto Alesina, an economist at Harvard University who died on May 23rd, stood his ground. Dinner with the Alesina’s was always a great time, in no small part because Susan is so exceptionally skilled at teasing Alberto. Alberto Alesina passed away on Saturday, age 63. And when you were in a bind,  he gained your trust and pushed you to try again. To economics, he was a giant and driving force of political economy, which grew under his lead to become an important interdisciplinary field. Alberto’s joy at hearing an interesting question or idea was obvious and infectious. There are no events scheduled. Every time I went to a faculty meeting, seminar, or lunch and saw Alberto in the room, I sensed that the event would be better just because he was there. - Jeffry Frieden, ...he taught me so much. He was always over-the-top engaged in our efforts to recruit new PhD students and to make sure they didn’t ruin their lives by going to MIT instead of Harvard. Alberto was not only an excellent economist who took good care of his students, but he was also a remarkably warm person whose presence cheered up everyone who came in contact with him. These influences extend to his alma mater, Bocconi, which has become a world center in Alesina style political economy. found: El país WWW site, viewed May 28, 2020 (in obituary dated May 24, 2020: We have just lost one of the great economists of the moment. The profession has lost a most creative mind and intellectual leader. The students and I admired him without bounds, both for his intellectual brilliance and for the joyous and incredibly warm and caring atmosphere that he had created for political economy at Harvard. Of Boston, passed away on May 23, 2020. To the world, Alberto Alesina was the engaged, prolific economist improving the policy debate. I just today learned of the very untimely passing of Alberto Alesina. Read more at Regulation. - Emily Breza, Alberto came to visit Tel Aviv University after he graduated from Harvard, and this is where we met first. His value as a teacher, mentor, and co-author is made clear by the extraordinary number of former students and collaborators who today dominate the field of Political Economy in Economics. I remember just last fall entering your seminars at Harvard and being invaded with energy. He was always willing to laugh at himself and admit when he didn’t know the answer to a question. This is a terrible loss for Harvard & the profession. At the many seminars he attended – often ran -- he could be counted upon to have some of the sharpest questions and comments, always presented with respect and good humor. He loved life, especially when he was racing down ski slopes. He was loved by students because he was approachable and could joke about the frivolous and the serious. For Raj Chetty (who then was considering a move to the West Coast), they showed a picture of Littauer in the middle of the Stanford campus. Alberto Alesina, Italian-born professor of economics at Harvard University for 32 years, was among the most prolific, original and influential academics in his field. Private Company Alberto Alesina, a prominent Harvard University economist and expert on austerity, has died at age 63, Italian media reported. Only Alberto knew how to make rumpledness look stylish. Alesina was an expert on austerity, an award-winning author, an innovative thinker, and a beloved professor. Alberto Alesina obituary and funeral plans As of today, May 26, 2020, the obituary and funeral arrangement of the deceased has not been learned. There are so many things I will miss about Alberto. Alberto Francesco Alesina (29 April 1957 – 23 May 2020) was an Italian political economist. Alberto Alesina suddenly passed away from cardiac arrest while on a walk with his wife on May 23. All rights reserved. He was 63. Despite all his accolades Alberto had no pretensions, no airs. He obtained … He was hiking and he had a heart attack. Services and Interment will be private. In Alberto’s case, they depicted Littauer on top of Mont Blanc. - Elhanan Helpman, Alberto was a revered member of our community. He was hiking and he had a heart attack. He served as Chairman of the Department of Economics from 2003 - 2006. To me, he was my brilliant, warm, funny, close co-author … Your work will shine forever, your seminars were rocking and your vitality will last forever.

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