Lawrence Summers

Lawrence Summers
Ralph Alswang Photography · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Birth date	30 November 1954
Birth place	New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
Nationality	American
Field	Macroeconomics
Institution	Harvard University, World Bank, U.S. Department of the Treasury, National Economic Council
Alma mater	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS), Harvard University (PhD)
Influences	Martin Feldstein, Stanley Fischer
Awards	John Bates Clark Medal (1993), Alan T. Waterman Award (1987)

Lawrence Summers is an American economist and academic who has held several prominent roles in public policy and higher education. He served as the 71st United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Bill Clinton and as the Director of the National Economic Council under President Barack Obama. Summers was also the 27th president of Harvard University, a position from which he resigned in 2006. A recipient of the prestigious John Bates Clark Medal, he is a professor and president emeritus at Harvard University and remains a widely cited and often controversial figure in economic discourse.

Early life and education

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, he is the son of two economists, Robert Summers and Anita Summers, and the nephew of two Nobel laureates in economics: Paul Samuelson and Kenneth Arrow. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he initially studied physics before switching to economics and earning a Bachelor of Science degree. He subsequently pursued graduate studies at Harvard University, completing his PhD in economics in 1982. His doctoral dissertation, written under the supervision of Martin Feldstein, focused on asset pricing and contributed to his early academic reputation.

Academic career

Summers joined the Harvard University faculty as a professor of economics in 1983, becoming one of the youngest tenured professors in the university's history. His early research, which earned him the Alan T. Waterman Award in 1987 and the John Bates Clark Medal in 1993, made significant contributions to fields such as unemployment, taxation, and international finance. In 1991, he left Harvard to serve as the Chief Economist of the World Bank. He returned to Harvard in 1993 as the Nathaniel Ropes Professor of Political Economy before departing for full-time government service. He later returned to the university as its president and, following his resignation, resumed his position on the faculty.

Government service

His government career began in the Reagan administration, where he served on the Council of Economic Advisers. He rose to prominence as the Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs and then Deputy Secretary of the Treasury under Secretary Robert Rubin during the Clinton administration. He played a key role in managing the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 1998 Russian financial crisis. In 1999, he was appointed the 71st United States Secretary of the Treasury, succeeding Rubin. During the Obama administration, he served as Director of the National Economic Council, helping to craft the response to the Great Recession, including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Tenure as Harvard president

Appointed in 2001, his presidency was marked by several major initiatives and controversies. He launched an ambitious campus expansion into Allston and emphasized strengthening science and engineering at Harvard. However, his tenure was often dominated by conflict, most notably a 2005 speech where he suggested innate differences might explain the underrepresentation of women in science and engineering fields, which sparked intense criticism from faculty. After a series of clashes with the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, he resigned in 2006, though he remained a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Business School.

Post-Harvard career and public commentary

Since his Harvard presidency, he has remained a prolific writer and commentator on economic policy. He is a Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus at Harvard University. He has written extensively for publications like the Financial Times and the Washington Post, often focusing on issues like secular stagnation, inequality, and fiscal policy. He has also served on corporate boards and as a managing director at D. E. Shaw & Co.. A frequent participant in forums like the World Economic Forum, his policy views, particularly his advocacy for robust economic stimulus, continue to generate significant debate within the economics profession and the media.

Personal life

He has been married twice. His first marriage was to Victoria Perry, an economist. He is currently married to Elisa New, a professor of English literature at Harvard University. He has three children. A resident of Brookline, Massachusetts, he is known to be an avid fan of the Boston Red Sox. His brother, Richard Summers, is a noted lawyer in Philadelphia.

Category:American economists Category:Harvard University faculty Category:United States Secretaries of the Treasury Category:Recipients of the John Bates Clark Medal