I was born in Madrid, Spain, in the turbulent early 1970s. From my father, I inherited a long family name (“Fernández-Villaverde”). From my mother, a Christian name, “Jesús,” which had been given to all the eldest boys in her family for generations. This naming outcome would have been acceptable (if somewhat confusing given the many other “Jesuses” seating at the table on Sunday lunch) had I stayed in my native Spanish-speaking world. But, alas, in 1996, I moved to the University of Minnesota to study for a Ph.D. in Economics. Thus, I started a life of struggles with airline reservation desks misspelling my family name and baristas at coffee shops calling me by random combinations of sounds when my hot beverage is ready.
After five years in Minnesota, I graduated in 2001, and I got a job as an Assistant Professor at the department of economics at the University of Pennsylvania. Twenty years later, I am still here (with a couple of detours on the way), although I was able to drop the “Assistant” from my title. Now, I am just “Professor.” I live in Haverford, a beautiful suburb right outside Philadelphia, with my wife, Jing.
My research deals with macroeconomics and econometrics. I have done a lot of work on the computation and estimation of DSGE models, on business cycle models with uncertainty shocks and, more recently, on deep learning in macro (academic website here).
As one could guess from my name, I was born in a Catholic family. On top of that, I completed all K-12 grades, undergraduate in business and economics, and law school in Catholic schools, 20 years in total if I count correctly.
Since early in life, I was concerned with what makes a society “good’’ in terms of providing its citizens with the political and economic conditions to achieve the higher goals in life. At the time, Spain was enduring a terrible combination of political instability, terrorism, high unemployment, high inflation, and low economic growth, which made me ask: “Why do other countries do better than we do?” “Is this a fact of life (or as a friend puts it: Spain is full of Spaniards)?” “Or are these outcomes of the consequences of collective choices?”
Those questions led me to the study of economics and law (and ultimately, macroeconomics). I have always been very interested in Catholic social teaching, Natural law, and, more in general, philosophy.
While most of my work in economics has been relatively technical (perhaps my comparative advantage), much of my undergraduate teaching (which is much less technical) is influenced by the ideas above. I have found, for example, that many undergraduates are deeply interested in questions such as: “What is ‘justice’?” Do we have ‘economic rights’?” “What economic obligations do we owe each other?”
These discussions are particularly important as most economists revert, by default, to naïve forms of utilitarianism when they jump from positive to normative statements. These jumps betray metaphysical and anthropological commitments, often unstated and rarely explored, that I find ultimately incompatible with the basic goods of human life.
In terms of mentoring, my experience in the profession is that success is directly related to one’s ability to follow the rules of the “economist’s guild.” Some rules make sense, and it would be hard to organize academic life otherwise. But some other rules are exceptionable and one must decide which rules to accommodate and which ones to resist. One needs the right combination of two of the cardinal virtues -prudence and fortitude- to navigate the profession. I hope to be able to share my experience in terms of how to tackle the rules, both the positive and the negative ones, and thrive as a Catholic in academia.
Contact: jesusfv@upenn.edu