meet the faculty

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Mike Leeds, Associate Professor of Economics & Director of Fox Honors

BA, Economics, Haverford College
Ph.D., Economics, Princeton University
Courses Taught: Principles of Micro- and Macroeconomics, Intermediate Microeconomics, The Economics of Education, The Economics of Sports, Labor Economics (undergraduate and graduate)

Jobs I have had in my lifetime...

  • I've been a landscaper, sewer worker, candy maker, burger flipper, teacher's aide in a school for autistic children, and professor of economics.

Movie I can watch over and over...

  • The Princess Bride, Seven Beauties, Modern Times, Eight Men Out, The Lord of the Rings - I've watched all of these at least 4X and would do so today.

Places I have lived...

  • Oakhurst, NJ; Philadelphia, PA; Prague, Czech Republic; Ann Arbor, MI

Favorite sports teams...

  • New York Yankees; New York Giants; Czech national hockey and soccer teams; Michigan football; Princeton basketball

Favorite TV shows...

  • PBS Mystery - especially Poirot and Inspector Morse; The Daily Show; Monk.

Foreign places I have traveled to...

  • Israel, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, England, France, Japan, and Italy.

Favorite spot on the Jersey Shoreline...

  • I grew up near Asbury Park - it's all good.

Websites I visit daily...

  • Espn.com, nytimes.com, youtube.com, economist.com.

Favorite foods...

  • Fish: from blackened redfish to really good sushi; Apple pie; b'stilla.

Favorite Philly restaurants...

  • Fork, Jack's Firehouse, Bridget's, Susanna Foo, Casablanca.

Favorite things to do outside of work...

  • Read; go to the theater (Wilma), opera, and ballgames; work out; do the Sunday NY Times crossword puzzle. Given more time, I would get back to playing the trombone and ballroom dancing.

Coolest thing I've ever done...

  • Watch Don Giovanni with my wife in a private box in Prague's Estates Theater. Perhaps the most romantic evening of my life.

If I could eat dinner with one person, it would be...

  • Living: Bill Bradley. He was my one childhood idol who wound up being worth idolizing.
  • Dead: My grandfather Morris Levitan. He was a rabbinical student, a draft-dodger, a farmer, and a poet, but he died 13 years before I was born.

Favorite flavor of ice cream...

  • Almost anything with nuts; Chunky Monkey

Favorite toy as a child...

  • My "happy monkey" (sort of like a teddy bear); my first baseball glove.

Book (not textbook!) I am currently reading...

  • Blind Side, by Michael Lewis; A Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman; A World At Arms by Gerhard Weinberg (a history of WWII)

Favorite books...

  • Ulysses, Dream of Scipio, Life and Fate, Battle Cry of Freedom

Person in my field whom I emulate.

  • Paul Douglas - he was a brilliant economist (he has an equation named for him!) who volunteered for the Marines as a 50-year old during WWII and served near the front lines, where he was seriously wounded. He then became one of the nation's most respected Senators in the 1950s and 1960s.

What my real ambition in life was...

  • To play centerfield for the Yankees.