The Nobel laureate in economics faces investigations into sexual harassment after allegations by former students
A US university is investigating a Nobel Prize winner over allegations of sexual harassment, which the economist’s lawyer dismisses as “professional rivalry”.
Philip Dybvig, who won this year’s Nobel Prize in economics for researching bank failures, was questioned by Washington University’s Title IX office in St. Louis in recent weeks, his attorney Andrew Miltenberg told The Associated Press.
Miltenberg said the allegations were “factually inaccurate.” Dybvig, a veteran banking and finance professor at the university, did not immediately respond to an email message seeking comment.
Dybvig, fellow economist Douglas W. Diamond, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke received the Nobel Prize in economics in October for their research into bank failures — work that built on lessons from the Great Depression and helped transform America’s aggressive Response to the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Findings in the early 1980s laid the groundwork for regulating financial markets, the Nobel panel said.
The Nobel Panel of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, recognizing the three winners, said their research showed “why avoiding bank failures is crucial”.
Bloomberg News reported that it has reviewed emails showing that Title IX’s office, which handles complaints of on-campus sexual harassment, has contacted at least three former students since October to address allegations related to Dybvig to question. They are among a group of seven former students who Bloomberg spoke to who claim Dybvig sexually harassed them. Most of the women interviewed by Bloomberg spoke on condition of anonymity.
Tore Ellingsen, chairman of the Nobel Prize committee for economics, told Bloomberg that the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which oversees the awards, has contacted the university to ensure it has a fair process to deal with the allegations.
“As long as the university has not established that Dybvig did something wrong, I think we owe him an unalloyed celebration of his great scientific achievement,” Ellingsen told Bloomberg.
The Nobel Peace Prize and Foundation did not immediately respond to email messages from the AP.
The university did not immediately respond to emails and phone messages from the AP on Friday. University spokeswoman Julie Flory told Bloomberg that the school would not comment on specific cases but would take sexual misconduct seriously and investigate all allegations.
Miltenberg said he was suspicious of the timing of the allegations, noting they emerged after the award was announced but before the scheduled awards ceremony.
“We believe,” he said, “that this is a situation of professional rivalry.”
Miltenberg said Dybvig was not threatened with any restrictions and that he should not teach “well in advance” about the allegations made in the spring semester.
Miltenberg said it was his understanding that the investigation was in its early stages and that the Title IX Office wanted to speak to Dybvig again.
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