Finn E. Kydland is the Henley Professor of Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and director of The Laboratory for Aggregate Economics and Finance.

Professor Kydland was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Economics jointly with Edward C Prescott of Arizona State University, "for their contribution to dynamic macroeconomics: the time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles."

Their analysis of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles transformed economic research and greatly influenced the practice of economic policy in general, and monetary policy in particular. In two joint papers, in 1977 and 1982, Kydland and Prescott offered new approaches to the analysis of macroeconomic developments. 

Kydland joined the UC Santa Barbara faculty on July 1, 2004. He previously taught at Carnegie Mellon University, where he earned his Ph.D. He is also an Adjunct Professor at NHH, Norway, and consults as a Research Associate at the Federal Reserve Banks of Dallas, Minneapolis and Cleveland.

Kydland was a member of the Expert Panel for the Consulta de San Jose and Copenhagen Consensus 2008.

The Copenhagen Consensus Center has commissioned research papers from specialist climate economists, outlining the costs and benefits of each way to respond to global warming.

To help promote discussion about the best response to global warming, the Copenhagen Consensus Center has assembled an Expert Panel of stellar economists to consider the research presented here.

The five world-class economists – including three recipients of the Nobel Prize – are specialists in analyzing costs and benefits. They will meet in September to consider the research presented here, engage with the authors, and will then form conclusions about which solutions to climate change are the most promising.