Dr. Tolley was President Emeritus of RCF and Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Chicago until his death on August 31, 2021. Dr. Tolley directed RCF’s mail volume forecasting work for the U.S. Postal Service for many years. He served as the chief witness for the Postal Service on volume issues during the first 20 years RCF’s involvement during which time he assisted the Postal Service in developing approaches to postal volume forecasts.
Dr. Tolley held executive positions in the Federal Government, including Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy and Director of the Economic Development Division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Dr. Tolley was Director of the Center for Urban Studies at the University of Chicago from 1978 to 1985. He held visiting professorships at Purdue University, the University of California at Berkeley, Nankai University, and Guelph University.
Dr. Tolley was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He served on committees of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. He was a founding editor and now honorary editor of the prestigious Elsevier professional journal Resources and Energy. He is the recipient of an Honorary Doctoral degree from North Carolina State University. He is the recipient of an honored colleague award of the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis.
Dr. Tolley made important original academic contributions. He was a pioneer in the areas of Environmental, Urban, and Energy Economics. Among his many accomplishments, Dr. Tolley long was an internationally recognized leader in the development and application of techniques for measuring costs and values that are determined outside of conventional markets. He applied these techniques to the valuation of environmental amenities and costs, urban housing values, value of life and medical treatments, among others. He used such estimates successfully in court cases and regulatory proceedings.
Dr. Tolley’s published works include 22 books and over 50 articles. Among the journal articles, four were published in Econometrica, three each in the Journal of Political Economy and the American Economic Review, and one in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. He participated in the preparation of 25 monographs and technical studies, over 80 chapters contributed to books, conference proceedings, and other research studies, and wrote 11 book reviews and made a number of published remarks as a professional meeting discussant.
Dr. Tolley received a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago, an M.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago, and a B.S. in Economics from American University.
