Nobel-winning economics professor Philip Dybvig faces sex harassment probe by Washington University
- Dybvig, who shared this year’s Nobel Prize in economics for research into bank failures, was questioned by an office that handles campus sex harassment complaints
- His lawyer dismissed the allegations as ‘professional rivalry’
A US university is investigating a Nobel laureate over sexual harassment allegations that the economist’s lawyer dismisses as “professional rivalry.”
Miltenberg said the allegations are “factually inaccurate.” Dybvig, a long-time banking and finance professor at the university, didn’t immediately respond to an email message seeking comment.
Dybvig, fellow economist Douglas W. Diamond and former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke won the Nobel Prize in economics in October for research into bank failures – work that built on lessons learned in the Great Depression and helped shape America’s aggressive response to the 2007-2008 financial crisis. The findings in the early 1980s laid the foundations for regulating financial markets, the Nobel panel said.
The Nobel panel at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, in recognising the three winners, said their research showed “why avoiding bank collapses is vital.”
Bloomberg News reported that it has reviewed emails that show that the Title IX office, which handles campus sexual harassment complaints, has reached out to at least three former students since October to interview them about claims involving Dybvig.
