Benjamin Page


Benjamin Ingrim Page is the Gordon S. Fulcher professor of decision making at Northwestern University. His interests include American politics and U.S. foreign policy, with particular interests in public opinion and policy making, the mass media, empirical democratic theory, and political economy. In 2014, Page, alongside co-author Martin Gilens, appeared on The Daily Show to discuss their study that found the policy-making process of American politics is dominated by economic elites.
Page graduated cum laude from Stanford University in 1961 with an A.B. in History. He completed his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1965, and his PhD in Political Science from Stanford in 1973. He completed additional post-doctoral training in Economics at Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology as he completed his dissertation. Page worked as an assistant professor for many institutions including Dartmouth, the University of Chicago, and University of Wisconsin. From 1983 to 1988, he held the Erwin Chair in the Department of Government at The University of Texas at Austin. In 1988, he became a professor at Northwestern, serving as a professor of decision making for their political science department. Page has served on multiple political, economic, and social science fellowships through his career. As of 2016, his most recent focus is on a project called "Economically Successful Americans and the Common Good".
Page has served on multiple political boards and associations through the years. In 1976, he sat on the Board of Overseers for the American National Election Studies until 1982. He has worked closely with the Midwest Political Science Association, serving on its governing council from 1984–1986. From 1991–1993, he served as vice president to the MPSA.

Publications