My parents raised my two younger brothers (Mike and Dan) and myself in Trenton, Michigan. I graduated from Trenton High School in 1985.
I attended the University of Michigan from 1985 through 1989. I enrolled in U of M's Residential College, which emphasizes foreign languages and a non traditional Social Science and Arts curriculum. I got a lot out of it, including German fluency and an appreciation for Bertolt Brecht, but in my sophomore year I discovered my true calling in plain-old economics. I began with almost no mathematical background, but after taking remedial courses I discovered my comparative advantage in technically-oriented areas like dynamic programming, game theory, and econometrics. I graduated with an A.B. in Economics in 1989.
I began the Ph.D. program in Economics at Northwestern University in 1989. After my first year, I worked as Bo Honore's research assistant, and after my second year I worked for Ken Kuttner when he was at the Chicago Fed. My dissertation committee was Marty Eichenbaum (chair), Kyle Bagwell, and Rob Porter. I also received ongoing support from Larry Christiano and Mark Watson. It is impossible to overstate how much I learned from all of them. Nevertheless, my first dissertation subject was a disaster, and I abandoned it half way through my fourth year. I chose my next topic more wisely. The result was Entry, Exit, Embodied Technology, and Business Cycles. I went on the job market in January 1994 and received my Ph.D. in June 1995. At Northwestern, I met Jonas Fisher, with whom I have collaborated extensively ever since.
My first assistant professor's job was at the University of Rochester (1994-1998). There, I was privlidged with an outstanding set of colleagues, including the late Rao Aiyagari, Mark Bils, Tom Cooley, Jeremy Greenwood, Hugo Hopenhayn, Per Krusell, Sergio Rebelo, and the late Alan Stockman. I met Zvi Hercowitz when he visited Rochester in Fall 1994, and we have investigated the macroeconomics of household debt markets. My second assistant professor's job was at the University of Chicago (1999-2002). There, I learned daily from Fernando Alvarez, Lars Hansen, Jim Heckman, Bob Lucas and Nancy Stokey. While at Chicago, I met Jaap Abbring, with whom I have collaborated for almost twenty years.
I joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in 2002 as a Senior Economist. In the wake of the Great Recession and Global Financial Crisis, I began research into the use and effectiveness of ``lower for longer'' monetary policies with Charlie Evans, Filippo Ferroni, Jonas Fisher, the late Alejandro Justiniano, and Leonardo Melosi. This research led to my teaching a graduate elective course on Monetary Policy at the Zero Lower Bound at CentER, Tilburg University. I am now Senior Economist and Research Advisor (an officer-level position) at the Chicago Fed. I am currently visiting the Department of Economics at the University of Notre Dame, where I am teaching undergraduate econometrics. In 2020, I will be visiting the Department of Econometrics and Operations Research at Tilburg University.
I have been married to Barbara Cohen for over twenty years. We live in Chicago with our two daughters and two cats.