We are deeply sorry that Peter Gottschalk passed away on March 25, 2021 at age 78. He was Professor of Economics at Boston College from 1987 until his retirement from teaching in 2010. He previously held positions at the Russell Sage Foundation, Brookings Institution, University of California Santa Cruz, among other institutions. He received his BA from George Washington University and his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. He published in journals such as the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Economic Literature, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Journal of Human Resources, and Industrial and Labor Relations Review.

Peter was among the first scholars to study the increasing inequality of wages and incomes in the U.S., work that stimulated research on this vital topic in many other countries. He also focused on welfare dependency, earnings instability, job mobility and policies to increase employment and earnings of the disadvantaged.

He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in April 2003.