Christopher A. Sims

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Lore & Background

Sims was born in Washington, D.C., to Ruth Bodman (Leiserson), a Democratic politician, and Albert Sims, a state department worker. He earned his A.B. in mathematics from Harvard University magna cum laude in 1963 and his PhD in economics from Harvard in 1968 under Hendrik S. Houthakker. During the 1963–64 academic year, he was a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. He served as a faculty member at the University of Minnesota for 20 years (1970–90) and also held teaching positions at Harvard, Yale, and, from 1999, Princeton, where he spent the longest portion of his career. Sims was a Fellow of the Econometric Society (from 1974), a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (from 1988), a member of the National Academy of Sciences (from 1989), and a member of the American Philosophical Society (from 2012). He served as president of the Econometric Society in 1995 and president of the American Economic Association in 2012. He died from injuries sustained in a fall at his home in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on March 14, 2026, at the age of 83. Sims published numerous important papers in econometrics and macroeconomic theory and policy. He was one of the main promoters of vector autoregression in empirical macroeconomics, though some maintained assumptions in such models have been incorrectly tested using asymptotic distribution theory. He advocated Bayesian statistics for formulating and evaluating economic policies. He was an outspoken opponent of the rational expectations revolution, arguing it should be a 'cautionary footnote' rather than a deep objection. He also helped develop the fiscal theory of the price level and the theory of rational inattention.

Reader's Guide

Christopher A. Sims's significance lies in his transformation of empirical macroeconomics through the introduction and promotion of vector autoregression (VAR), a statistical method that allows economists to analyze how multiple economic variables interact over time without imposing strong theoretical assumptions. His work, recognized with the 2011 Nobel Prize alongside Thomas Sargent, provided a rigorous framework for assessing causality in monetary policy, confirming that money supply changes affect inflation but also that causality runs both ways. Sims's advocacy for Bayesian methods offered a practical approach to policy evaluation under uncertainty. His skepticism of the rational expectations revolution and real business cycle models reflected a commitment to empirical realism over theoretical purity. By developing the fiscal theory of the price level and rational inattention, he expanded the toolkit for understanding inflation and decision-making. His legacy endures in the widespread use of VAR in central banks and academic research, and in his insistence that econometric models must be tested against data rather than assumed.

Did You Know?

• Sims earned his A.B. in mathematics from Harvard University magna cum laude in 1963 and his PhD in economics from Harvard in 1968 under Hendrik S. Houthakker.
• He served as a faculty member at the University of Minnesota for 20 years (1970–90) and later spent the longest portion of his career at Princeton from 1999.
• Sims was president of the Econometric Society in 1995 and president of the American Economic Association in 2012.
• In June 2024, Sims was one of 16 Nobel Prize in Economics laureates who signed an open letter arguing that Donald Trump’s fiscal and trade policies would reignite inflation in the United States.
• Sims died from injuries sustained in a fall at his home in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on March 14, 2026, at the age of 83.