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Researcher Spotlight

Charles Wolf, Jr.

Distinguished Chair in International Economics

Charles Wolf Jr. received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon on May 11 from the government of Japan, in recognition for his many years of work on Japan. The two-part ceremony took place at the Foreign Ministry office in Tokyo and the Imperial Palace, where there was a reception with Emperor Akihito.

The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon is the Japan's highest honor for members of the academia, according to the Consulate-General of Japan in Los Angeles.

Dr. Wolf received his Ph.D in Economics from Harvard University. He served with the Department of State, and he was a guest lecturer on Economics and Asian Studies at Cornell University and an assistant professor on Economics and Far East research at the University of California, Berkeley.

In 1967 Dr. Wolf joined RAND. He became the head of RAND's Economics Department, and later was named Director of RAND research in international economics. Dr. Wolf is the founding Dean of the Pardee RAND Graduate School and served as the Dean from 1970 to 1997. Today, Dr. Wolf is a Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution and on the advisory board of the Center for International Business and Economic Research at UCLA's Anderson Graduate School of Business.

Internationally well known, Dr. Wolf has written more than 250 articles and more than a dozen books on economics, defense, and international affairs. During the time when Japan bashing was at its prime, his tone of arguments towards Japan was very calm, objectivity well balanced, with no bias, and his analysis were clearly from a pure researchers point of view.

Dr. Wolf's main research and policy interests are international economy, international security, and the relations between them. His analysis, especially his deliberation towards the improvement of United States and Japan, has definitely influenced today's Japan-U.S. economy.

Dr. Wolf has been invited to lecture the main economic organization and research laboratories of Japan.

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