Dr. Michelle J. White is a visiting professor of economics at CKGSB, a professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego, and a research associate at NBER. She received her Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University and has held faculty positions at the University of Pennsylvania, New York University, and the University of Michigan. She has also been a visiting professor at Yale, Wisconsin, Chicago, and Tilburg and a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School, Berkeley, the Hebrew University, Copenhagen Business School, and the Universities of Bonn, Tel Aviv, Uppsala, and Munich. She taught in the American Economics Association's master's degree program in Beijing in 1986 and in the Ph.D. program at the New Economics School in Moscow in 1996. In 1990 she was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Warsaw.

She was President of the American Law and Economics Association in 2008-09, was a member of the Advisory Panel of the Law and Social Sciences Program of the U.S. National Science Foundation in 1987-88, was the American Economic Association's representative on the Board of Directors of the Social Science Research Council in 1994-2000, and was vice-president of the Midwest Economics Association in 1996-97. She is a member of the Executive and Supervisory Committee of CERGE-EI, a Ph.D.-granting economics program in Prague. She was an associate editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives in 2003-2006 and is a current or former editorial board member of the American Law and Economics Review, the Journal of Urban Economics, Land Economics, and the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics.

• National Science Foundation, Economics Program, grant number 0212444, "Mass Torts and Bankruptcy: Asbestos," 2002-04.
• National Science Foundation, Law and Social Science and Economics Programs, grant number SBR-9617712, "Financial Distress and Bankruptcy," 1997-99.
• National Science Foundation, Law and Social Science and Economics Programs, grant number SBS-931006, "Personal Bankruptcy in the U.S.: Legal and Economic Issues," 1994-96.
• National Science Foundation, Law and Social Science and Economics Programs, grant number SES-9123394, "Economic Issues in Medical Malpractice: Dispute Resolution and the Shift to No-Fault," 1992-94.
• Fulbright Fellowship, Poland, Fall 1990.
• Fund for Research on Dispute Resolution, "Economic Issues in Medical Malpractice Dispute Resolution," 1989-90.
• National Science Foundation, Law and Social Science and Economics Programs, grant number SES-8812763. "Economic Models of Legal Complexity and Liability Rules," 1988-89.
• Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, "Location Behavior, Neighborhood Change, and Commuting in New York City," 1984-86.
• National Science Foundation, Law and Social Science Program, grant number SES-82-08930. "Corporate Bankruptcy Under the New Bankruptcy Code," 1982-83.
• National Science Foundation, Law and Social Science Program, grant number SES-79-24828. "Corporate Bankruptcy: Legal, Economic and Public Policy Issues," (with E. Altman), 1980-81.
• National Institute of Mental Health, "Effects of Changing Household Structure on Cities" (with J.F. Madden), 1978.
• Resources for the Future Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, 1972-73.
• Earhart Foundation Fellowship, 1971-72.
• Radcliffe College Education for Action Fellowship, 1967, for research in Tunisia.
• University of London Fellowship, 1967-68.

"Did Bankruptcy Reform Cause Mortgage Defaults to Rise?" with Wenli Li and Ning Zhu. NBER working paper 15968. To be published in American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.

 “Bankruptcy Law," in Handbook of Law and Economics, edited by A.M. Polinsky and Steven Shavell. Elsevier Press.

"The Corporate Bankruptcy Decision," J. of Economic Perspectives, vol. 3, Spring 1989, pp. 129-152.

 "Personal Bankruptcy and the Level of Entrepreneurial Activity," with Wei Fan. Journal of Law & Economics, vol. 46:2, October 2003, pp. 543-568. 

 

"Bankruptcy and Small Firms' Access to Credit," with Jeremy Berkowitz. RAND J. of Economics, vol. 35:1, pp. 69-84, Spring 2004.

 

 "The Household Bankruptcy Decision," with Scott Fay and Erik Hurst, American Economic Review, vol. 92:3, June 2002, pp. 708-718.

 

 "Sovereigns in Distress: Do They Need Bankruptcy?" Brookings Papers on Economic Activity , issue 1, 2002, pp. 287-319.

 

 "Personal Bankruptcy and Credit Supply and Demand," with R. Gropp and J.K. Scholz, in Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 112, pp. 217-251, Feb. 1997.

 

"Asbestos and the Future of Mass Torts," Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 18:2, Spring 2004.

 

"The `Arms Race' on American Roads: The Effect of Sport Utility Vehicles and Pickup Trucks on Traffic Safety." Journal of Law & Economics, October 2004, vol. XLVII(2), pp. 333-356.

 

"Urban Commuting is Not Wasteful," J. of Political Economy, vol. 96:5, October 1988, pp. 1097-1110.

 

"Measuring the Benefits of Homeowning: Effects on Children," with Richard K. Green, J. of Urban Economics, vol. 41, 1997, pp. 441-461.