Aria Lynn-Skov, Contributing Photographer

A Friday event commemorated 50 years since the release of the influential Tobin Report on Puerto Rico — a 1975 assessment of Puerto Rico’s economic challenges authored by James Tobin, a Nobel laureate in economics, a former Sterling professor and the namesake of Yale’s Tobin Center for Economic Policy.

The event, which was hosted by the Tobin Center and the Center for a New Economy, a Puerto Rican think tank, gathered leading policymakers and economists to talk about the report’s enduring legacy on Puerto Rico. Speakers emphasized the importance of using research to inform policy decisions. 

Resident Commissioner for Puerto Rico Pablo José Hernández spoke about three “timeless lessons on what effective leadership can look like in difficult times.” He recommended people first, “surround yourself with experts;” second, “have the courage to make tough decisions;” third, “be realistic but also be optimistic.” 

Written at a time of economic downturn in Puerto Rico and commissioned by then-governor Rafael Hernández Colón, the Tobin Report assessed Puerto Rico’s economic instability and provided a series of policy recommendations for solutions. 

Friday’s event included remarks from a mix of Tobin Center affiliates and researchers and officials from Puerto Rico. Among them, former Yale President Richard Levin spoke to Tobin’s character while Puerto Rico Secretary of Economic Development and Commerce Sebastián Negrón Reichard joined Hernández as a representative of the Puerto Rican government. 

Though Hernández could not attend the event due to the current government shutdown, he provided his thoughts over video. Hernández said that while the solutions proposed by Tobin were not immediately popular, they did eventually help boost Puerto Rico’s economy. 

Rosanna Torres Pizarro, president of the Center for a New Economy — a nonprofit think tank dedicated to policy advocacy for Puerto Rico — opened the event by speaking about the legacy of the report. 

She said that commemorating the Tobin Report is important because it represents “a time where research was very much valued and ideas and the insights from academia and from think tanks like ours were fundamental to shaping public policies.”

Sarah Konishesky, the Tobin Center’s associate program manager, said the Center for a New Economy approached the center almost a year ago about having an event for the 50th anniversary of the Tobin Report. Konishesky said the Center for a New Economy already had panelists in mind to provide a Puerto Rican perspective and were enthusiastic about the possibilities of collaboration.

“I was familiar with the Tobin Report but not familiar with the actual contents of it,” Konishesky said. “It was exciting for us to be able to collaborate with them.”

In his speech, Levin spoke about Tobin himself, the center’s namesake and the man behind the influential report. Levin was a student and colleague of Tobin’s for 32 years, starting when he was a graduate student at Yale. 

The Tobin Report on Puerto Rico was one part of Tobin’s decades-long career that included a Nobel Prize and economic advising for former President John F. Kennedy. 

Levin spoke of Tobin’s “desire to improve the wellbeing of citizens and particularly the least fortunate,” which drove his wide impact.

“His influence derived from two sources: his crystal clear intelligence and his moral seriousness,” Levin said, further describing the late economist as a “towering scholar and a moral hero.” 

Antonio Padilla ’27, a co-chair of Despierta Boricua, an organization of Puerto Rican students at Yale, went to the event because he said he cares about staying informed on the “health and the status of Puerto Rico.”

“I think it’s great that we have people who are experts in the field speaking about these issues to help us learn,” Padilla said.

In 2024, the Tobin Center reported that it collaborated with 15 government agencies.