Econ prof has the 'Wright' stuff

Randy Wright is far from the average Economics professor. With his long hair, a large gold cross dangling from his left ear and bulky black leather jacket draped over the back of his chair, Wright probably would be less conspicuous among his undergraduate students than with his professional colleagues. And one would hardly guess he is a consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland. Wright, 42, plays lead guitar in a faculty band called "The Contractions." The eight-member group started playing together two years ago for the Economics Department's graduate Skit Night and they had such "good fun" that they stuck with it. They performed last weekend in front of a packed Palladium crowd. Wright began playing guitar six nights a week in a neighborhood pub shortly after he graduated from high school in Canada. "Playing in bands is the only reason I went to college at all because I had nothing to do during the day," he said, in a serious tone, although he added that he also enrolled to please his father. Wright said that he -- like many of the students he met at the University of Manitoba -- went through four years of college without ever really doing much work. He chose economics as his major only because he got an A in the class, but the more economics classes he took, the more he began to like it. Wright decided to play the eternal student and attended the University of Minnesota, "because, coming from Winnipeg, it seemed like a nice warm place to live." There, he received a doctorate in macroeconomics. But don't let Wright's manner mislead you. Second-year Wharton doctoral student Brett Norwood was quick to assure that Wright commands "a fantastic knowledge of the subject." "He always has an intuitive feel for how [economics] applies to the world," Norwood said. After he received his degree, Wright spent three years teaching at Cornell University and then came to Penn, where he has been for the last 12 years. While he usually teaches graduate students, last semester Wright co-taught three sections of the introductory microeconomics lecture with two other professors. Wright said that he enjoyed teaching undergraduates. In the future Wright said he would like to devote half of his classes to undergraduates. Wright's easygoing nature has certainly carried over to his job as a professor as he likes taking his doctoral students out to the "pub" after class. He said he practically considers his advanced students as colleagues and enjoys spending time with them outside class. Wright's research is mostly in monetary theory -- the study of how exchange takes place, a topic he says is often neglected by economists. However, Wright does enjoy stepping outside of his main field now and then. A couple of years ago, he collaborated with then-graduate student Eric Smith to write a paper entitled "Why Auto Insurance is so Damned Expensive." Still, Wright said he loves Philadelphia -- he shares a house in Center City with his cat Clare -- because it "suits my lifestyle a lot," as he can walk or take a cab anywhere. "My driver's license expired like 10 years ago and I haven't got around to renewing it," Wright said.