In the end I chose Northwestern, because Professor Modigliani taught there, and it was partly thanks to him that I was admitted. At the beginning of 1962 Franco announced to me that he was moving to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and suggested I should follow him. I did, without hesitating.
Under Paul Samuelson’s influence, MIT was already at the forefront of the academic world, for the originality of its research, the quality of its teaching staff, and the constant wrestling with practical problems; among the latter, I have pleasure in recalling Kennedy’s new economic policy, which was under discussion in the States at the time.