Allen Sanderson is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago and a Senior Research Scientist at

Allen Sanderson is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago. A graduate of Brigham Young University and the University of Chicago, he served as Associate Provost at the University of Chicago from 1984-91 and has also been affiliated as Senior Research Scientist at NORC. He has taught at Princeton University and the College of William and Mary. In the College he currently teaches a popular two-quarter sequence in introductory economics, a course on the economics of sports, and organized a new, highly-acclaimed, team-taught multidisciplinary course entitled “Sport, Society and Science.”

Mr. Sanderson is an oft-cited authority on sports economics issues, a contributor to op-ed pages on sports and non-sports topics in newspapers around the country and a frequent guest on national and Chicago-area television and radio programs. He writes a bi-monthly column " On Economics" for Chicago Life. In 1998 he was a recipient of the University of Chicago’s prestigious Quantrell Award for teaching excellence. He also ran the Chicago Marathon in 1998, 1999 and 2002. His local community/volunteer commitments have included STRIVE (a tutoring program), and the Intercity Youth Charitable Trust. His wife, Diana Jergovic, is an associate provost at the University.

Mr. Sanderson serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Sports Economics and as a referee for the Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Business, Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Economic Education, Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Human Resources,and Southern Economic Journal. Recent speaking engagements include lectures in Osaka, Japan; the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism; Clemson University; BYU; three universities in China; the Economic Club of Chicago (with baseball commissioner Bud Selig); and University of Chicago alumni clubs across the country.

Sanderson’s contributions at NORC include research on education, labor markets, and affirmative action on contracts sponsored by the National Science Foundation, TIAA-CREF, the State of Texas, the Educational Testing Service, U.S. News and World Report, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. NORC reports include: Recent Migration Patterns of Science and Engineering Doctorate Recipients (with Bernard Dugoni), The American Faculty Poll (with Voon Chin Phua and David Herda), Doctorate Recipients from United States Universities: Annual Summary Report (with Bernard Dugoni, Thomas Hoffer and Sharon Myers), and An Analysis of Worker Drug Use and Workplace Policies and Programs (with John P. Hoffman and Cindy Larison).

Recent professional publications include research on the economics of sports stadiums (in the Marquette Sports Law Journal and with Robert Baade in Noll and Zimbalist, Sports, Jobs and Taxes and in Hendricks, Advances in the Economics of Sports, Volume 2), free agency in sports (with John Siegfried in Economic Affairs), using sports to teach economics (with John Siegfried in Becker and Watts, Teaching Economics to Undergraduates), home court advantage in the NBA (with Ken Rasinski in Oeconomica), labor markets in professional sports (with Sherwin Rosen in The Economic Journal), dimensions of competitive balance (Journal of Sports Economics), teaching economics (with John Siegfried, Southern Economics Journal), and on competitive balance (with John Siegfried, Journal of Sports Economics). Recent conference presentations include July 2005 on “The Role of Capital Formation in Professional Sports and Community Development” at Georgetown University; February 2003 on “Baseball Economics” at Vanderbilt University; May 2001 on "The Economics of Baseball" at Washington University; November 2000 on "Baseball's Future" at Smith College; “The Economics of Gambling” for Know Your Chicago, September 2002; and “A Home for the NFL Chicago Bears: A Case Study in Political Economy and Power” (American Economic Association, January 2003). His article on Nobel laureates in economics associated with the University of Chicago, "Wealth of Notions," appeared as the cover story for the December 2001 issue of The University of Chicago Magazine. His recent professional research was on the economic impact of colleges and universities on their communities; versions of that work, co-authored with John Siegfried and Peter McHenry, appeared in the Economics of Education Review, Change, and the Milken Institute Review in 2007 and 2008. His latest "Market Madness" exercise appreared in the program of the American Economic Assoication program (2010) and the Milken Institute Review (2010).