McFadden, Daniel L.

McFadden, Daniel L.

(born July 29, 1937, Raleigh, N.C., U.S.) U.S. economist and winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, along with James Heckman, for development of methods for analyzing individual or household behaviour. McFadden studied physics (B.S. 1957) and economics (Ph.D. 1962) at the University of Minnesota. He taught economics at the University of California, Berkeley (1963–79 and from1990 ), Yale University (1977–78), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1978–91). In 1974 McFadden developed conditional logit analysis—a method for determining how people make choices that maximize the utility of their decisions. His work has helped predict usage rates for mass transit, and his statistical methods have been applied to labour-force participation, health care, housing, and the environment.