Alumnus endows economics center

Benjamin Griswold IV ’62 and his family have gifted the Center for Economic Policy Studies with a substantial endowment, the University announced on Monday. Founded in 1989 by economics professor Alan Blinder ’67, the center has committed itself to supporting research and conducting seminars on the many intersections of economics, business and government.

The gift is part of the University’s $1.75 billion Aspire campaign, and both Griswold and co-director of the Center Uwe Reinhardt declined to specify the amount of the donation.

A prominent investment banking executive, Griswold comes from a family that has found success in the financial world and maintained close ties to Princeton. He made his gift to the University in honor of his late father, Benjamin Griswold III ’33, after whom the center has been renamed the Griswold Center for Economic Policy Studies.

“Two of my father’s greatest interests other than his family were his insatiable curiosity regarding economics and his great affection for Princeton,” Griswold IV said in the University press release. “Our family is honored to connect these two important threads of his life.

While an undergraduate at Princeton, Griswold himself exploredeconomics from a historical perspective, writing his senior thesis on the economic growth and political environment of early 19th-century Baltimore.

“I have always been very interested in economic history, economic cycles and credit cycles,” he said in an interview Monday afternoon. “That interest really dovetails very nicely with the work that the center does.”

Wilson School professor Reinhardt, who currently co-directs the center with economics professor Hyun Shin, was moved by Griswold’s act of generosity.

“It is always a little touching to see young ones go out as alumni and remember their alma mater,” he said in an interview Monday afternoon.

Blinder expressed similar sentiments. “We are gratified and humbled by Ben Griswold and his family’s extraordinary generosity. This gift will secure the center’s finances indefinitely and ensure that the programs we put on and the research we support will become permanent features of economics at Princeton,” he said.

The vision for the center’s growth trajectory with this new gift is still in its formative stages, but Griswold is scheduled to meet with Reinhardt, Shin, the Faculty Steering Committee and an outside advisory board on Oct. 21 to consult the involved parties and start developing a plan.

Reinhardt said that the gift will set the center on a completely new financial footing that will allow it to expand in ways not possible before.

Griswold personally believes that further research in the 2008 financial crisis would be one worthwhile focus area.

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“I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but I think there are some extremely important lessons to be learned from the recent financial crisis,” he said. “I am pretty sure that the center will be among the leaders in doing research for such analysis of those lessons.”