Robert Chirinko

His research examines business behavior with a focus on capital formation, macroeconomics, banking, financial markets, corporate governance and finance, and tax policy. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1982 and has held faculty positions at Cornell University (1982-1985) and the University of Chicago (1985-1992) and full-time visiting positions at Stanford University (1984-1985), the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (1992-1993), and the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign (1993-1994). Prior to coming to the University of Illinois at Chicago, he was on the faculty of Emory University from 1994-2007, where he was the Winship Distinguished Research Professor in the Social Sciences. He is currently a professor in the Finance Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, a research fellow at the Center for Economic Studies (Munich), and an affiliate and member of the Faculty Advisory Panel for the Government Finance Research Center (UIC).

Research support has been provided by the National Science Foundation, the Bank of Japan, the Booth School of Business (University of Chicago), Canadian Department of Finance, the Canadian Embassy, the Dutch National Bank, the East-West Center and The Korea Development Institute, the Einaudi Institute of Economics and Finance, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the German Bundesbank, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Industry Canada, the Joyce Foundation, the Kauffman Foundation/Georgia Research Alliance, the Prudential Foundation, and the Upjohn Institute.

He has received the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award (shared with L. Summers) from the National Tax Association and the James L. Barr Memorial Award in Public Economics and the Vernon Award, both from the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. He was a Houblon-Norman/George Senior Fellow at the Bank of England (2006), a Visiting Professor at the University of Munich (1992), a Visiting Scholar at the European University Institute (2008), a Visiting Professor (2012, 2015, 2017, 2019) and an honorary professor (2013-2017) at Deakin University, a DAAD Visiting Researcher at Goethe University (2013), a Visiting Professor at the Einaudi Institute of Economics and Finance (2014-2019, 2022-2024), a Visiting Researcher at the Booth School (2018), and a Visiting Scholar at the Bank of Japan (2020) and Osaka University (2024).

• “Fiscal Policies For Job Creation And Innovation: The Experiences Of U.S. States” (with Daniel J. Wilson), in Sang-Hyop Lee and Enriro Moretti (eds.), Job Creation Strategy in a Knowledge Economy (East-West Center and The Korea Development Institute, forthcoming).
• “Job Creation Tax Credits, Fiscal Foresight, and Job Growth: Evidence from U.S. States” (with Daniel J. Wilson), National Tax Journal 76 (September 2023), 481-523.
• “What Went Wrong? The Puerto Rican Debt Crisis, The ‘Treasury Put,’ And The Failure Of Market Discipline”, Journal of Corporate Finance 80 (June 2023), 102409, 1-20.
• “Is A State Bank A Useful Economic Development Tool In The USA?,” CESifo Economic Studies 68 (December 2022), 391–413.
• “Tax Competition among U.S. States: Racing to the Bottom or Riding on a Seesaw?” (with Daniel J. Wilson), Journal of Public Economics 155 (November 2017), 147-163.
• “The Substitution Elasticity, Factor Shares, And The Low-Frequency Panel Model” (with Debdulal Mallick), American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 9 (October 2017). 225-253.
• “Greenspan Shrugs: Formal Pronouncements, Bond Market Volatility, And Central Bank Communication” (with C. Curran), in Pierre Siklos and Jan-Egbert Sturm (eds.), Central Bank Communication, Decision-Making and Governance: The Issues, Challenges, and Case Studies (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2013), 149-179.
• “A New Approach to Estimating Production Function Parameters:  The Elusive Capital-Labor Substitution Elasticity” (with Steven M. Fazzari and Andrew P. Meyer), Journal of Business & Economic Statistics 29 (October 2011), 587-594.
• “The Irreversibility Premium” (with H. Schaller), Journal of Monetary Economics 56 (April 2009), 390-408.
• “σ:  The Long and Short of It,” in Rainer Klump and Chris Papageorgiou (eds.), The CES Production Function in the Theory and Empirics of Economic Growth; conference proceedings published in a special issue of the Journal of Macroeconomics 30 (June 2008), 671-686.
• “A Revealed Preference Approach to Understanding Corporate Governance Problems:  Evidence from Canada” (with Huntley Schaller), Journal of Financial Economics 74 (Oct. 2004), 181-206.
• “Business Fixed Investment and ‘Bubbles’: The Japanese Case” (with Huntley Schaller), American Economic Review 91 (June 2001), 663-680.
• “Business Fixed Investment Spending: Modeling Strategies, Empirical Results, and Policy Implications,” Journal of Economic Literature 31 (December 1993), 1875-1911.

PhD, Economics, Northwestern University, 1982
MA, Economics, Northwestern University, 1979
BA, Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 1975

2023

• Emory University, “The Return On Private Capital: Rising And Diverging.”
• Bank of Japan; Keio, Kyoto, and Osaka Universities, “The Return On Private Capital: Rising And Diverging.”
• Bank of Italy, “The ‘Secret Sauce’?: Understanding The Success Of The Bank Of North Dakota.”

2022

• Einaudi Institute of Economics and Finance, “The Return On Private Capital: Rising and Diverging.”
• Henry George Institute (virtual), Conference, Rebuilding the Economy after the Pandemic – Challenges and Avenues of Reform, “Is A State Bank A Useful Economic Development Tool?.”

2021

• American Economic Association, Chicago (virtual), “Islamic Banking and Firm Performance: Costs, Benefits, and Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis."
• East-West Center and The Korea Development Institute (virtual), “Fiscal Policies For Job Creation And Innovation: The Experiences Of U.S. States."

2020

• American Economic Association (San Diego), “What Went Wrong?: The Puerto Rican Debt Crisis, The ‘Treasury Put,’ And The Failure Of Market Discipline.”
• Bank of Japan/Institute For Monetary And Economic Studies, “What Went Wrong?: The Puerto Rican Debt Crisis, The ‘Treasury Put,’ And The Failure Of Market Discipline.”
• Econometric Society World Congress, Milan (virtual), “International Capital Allocations And The Lucas Paradox Redux.”

2019

• Deakin University, “Islamic Banking and Firm Performance: Costs, Benefits, and Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis.”
• University of Melbourne, “What Went Wrong?: The Puerto Rican Debt Crisis, The ‘Treasury Put,’ And The Failure Of Market Discipline.”

2018

• University of Chicago, “What Went Wrong?: The Puerto Rican Debt Crisis and the ‘Treasury Put’.”
• Sciences Po Aix (France), Conference, 35th International Symposium on Money, Banking and Finance: Towards a New Deal, “Islamic Banking and Firm Performance: Costs, Benefits, and Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis.”
• Brookings Institution, 7th Annual Municipal Finance Conference, “What Went Wrong?: The Puerto Rican Debt Crisis and the ‘Treasury Put’.”
• Goethe University (Frankfurt), “What Went Wrong?: The Puerto Rican Debt Crisis and the ‘Treasury Put’.”
• German Ministry of Finance (Berlin), Inaugural Fiscal Policy Seminar: Rethinking Market Discipline, “What Went Wrong?: The Puerto Rican Debt Crisis and the ‘Treasury Put’.”

2017

• Einaudi Institute of Economics and Finance (Rome), “Islamic Banking and Firm Performance: Costs, Benefits, and Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis on Real Economic Activity.”
• Cadi Ayyad University (Marrakech), Conference, Macro Marrakech, “Islamic Banking and Firm Performance: Costs, Benefits, and Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis on Real Economic Activity.”

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS ALL WORKING PAPERS & OTHER RESEARCH MATERIALS LISTED BELOW

9. PUBLIC BANKING

8. “The Return On Private Capital: Rising and Diverging” (with Debdulal Mallick).

7. “Fiscal Foresight And Perverse Distortions To Firm Behavior: Anticipatory Dips And Compensating Rebounds,” (with Daniel J. Wilson).

6. “Islamic Banking and Firm Performance: Costs, Benefits, and Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis” (with Özgür Arslan-Ayaydin and Mahir Binici).

5. “Policy Brief: Is A State Bank A Useful Economic Development Tool With Future Promise?” (assisted by Katherine Barrett and Rich Greene), GFRC Policy Brief.

4. “Job Creation Tax Credits, Fiscal Foresight, and Job Growth: Evidence from U.S. States” ONLINE APPENDICES (with Daniel J. Wilson), National Tax Journal (forthcoming).

3. “Is A State Bank A Useful Economic Development Tool In The USA?” ONLINE APPENDIX, CESifo Economic Studies 68 (December 2022), 391–413.

2. “Tax Competition among U.S. States: Racing to the Bottom or Riding on a Seesaw?” ONLINE APPENDICES (with Daniel J. Wilson), Journal of Public Economics 155 (November 2017), 147-163.

1. “The Substitution Elasticity, Factor Shares, And The Low-Frequency Panel Model” ONLINE APPENDICES (with Debdulal Mallick), American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 9 (October 2017), 225-253.