YELLEN

A thriving marriage buoys two impressive careers.

Financial journalist Hilsenrath, senior writer for the Wall Street Journal, makes his book debut with a perceptive dual biography of Janet Yellen (b. 1946) and her husband, Nobel laureate George Akerlof (b. 1940). By the time they met in 1977, Yellen had earned a doctorate at Yale, where she was inspired by the “moral passion” of her mentor, James Tobin, and had just left a teaching job at Harvard. Akerlof, coming out of MIT, had taught at Berkeley, was divorced, and, in 1970, had written a transformative 13-page paper, “The Market for ‘Lemons,’ ” which, Hilsenrath notes, “helped open the door for a new branch of research called behavioral economics.” In many ways, the two were opposites: “Janet was disciplined, grounded, sensible, orderly; George was creative, contrarian, and unorthodox.” Soon after meeting, they married and went off to teach at the London School of Economics. Though their personalities differed, their views on their field concurred. Both were critics of the efficient-market theory of economics, which held that individuals always act in their own best interests. Yellen and Akerlof believed that a person’s financial decisions are not always rational nor predictable. Similarly, they opposed the stance of economists such as Milton Friedman, who saw individual liberty to be “both a virtue in its own right and the central mechanism for economic good.” In 2001, Akerlof shared a Nobel Prize; his continued research in behavior and social psychology led to his creating the field of identity economics. Yellen attained ever higher political appointments as chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, chair of the Federal Reserve, and secretary of the treasury. Hilsenrath draws on personal interviews and abundant published material to clearly elucidate economic theories, recount Yellen’s challenges in steering the nation through economic upheaval, and convey the warmth of the family’s life.

A lucid, informative portrait.