The Economics Department is saddened to share the passing of esteemed faculty member and Nobel Prize winner Christopher Sims, the John J. F. Sherrerd ’52 University Professor of Economics, Emeritus, at Princeton University.

Sims is widely regarded as one of the most influential macroeconomists of recent times, having transformed the field through the development of vector autoregression methods. His contributions as a researcher, academic, and mentor will continue to impact the careers and lives of his students and colleagues, the broader macroeconomic and econometric fields, and monetary policy.

While Sims’s research focused on econometric theory for dynamic models and macroeconomic theory and policy, his research catalog is vast, spanning macroeconomics, econometrics, methodology, finance, and microeconomics. Sims developed tools to track and identify how shocks affect the economy over time, and his methods allowed for the examination of the relationship between policy and the economy. 

In 2011, Sims, along with his frequent collaborator and friend Thomas Sargent, won the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences for their empirical research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy. 

Sims earned both an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Harvard University in 1963 and a Ph.D. in economics in 1968. He began his teaching career there as an Instructor and Assistant Professor of Economics before accepting a position at the University of Minnesota in 1970, where he would spend 20 years. In 1990, Sims became the Henry Ford II Professor of Economics at Yale University. After nine years at Yale, Sims accepted a professorship at Princeton University, beginning the longest-held position of his career. In 2004, Sims became the Harold H. Helm ’20 Professor of Economics and Banking, and in 2012, the John J. F. Sherrerd ‘52 University Professor of Economics. A member of the Economics Department, Sims was a faculty affiliate of Princeton’s Bendheim Center for Finance and Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance. He also served as co-director of the Griswold Center for Economic Policy Studies from 2014 to 2021.

Among his extensive contributions to his fields, Sims was a Fellow of the Econometric Society (president in 1995), a member of the American Economic Association (president in 2012), a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a member of the American Philosophical Society, and others. In an editorial capacity, Sims served on the editorial boards of several scientific journals, including the Journal of Applied Econometrics, the Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, and Econometrica.

As a professor, Sims was generous with his time and deeply committed to his students. He mentored dozens of undergraduate and graduate students over the course of his decades of teaching. 

The Economics Department faculty, staff, and students are deeply saddened by his passing. He made a lasting impact on all who came into contact with him. His kindness, patience, intellect, thoughtfulness, and friendship will be greatly missed.

“Chris Sims was a wonderful colleague and an exceptionally dedicated adviser and mentor to his students,” shared Wolfgang Pesendorfer, Economics Department Chair. “He treated students as peers, never compromising on intellectual depth, and inspired tremendous enthusiasm for research in all who interacted with him.”