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| Edward Lazear | |
|---|---|
| Name | Edward Lazear |
| Birth date | 1948 |
| Birth place | Newark, New Jersey |
| Death date | 2020 |
| Death place | Stanford, California |
| Nationality | United States |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley; Princeton University |
| Occupation | Economist; Stanford Graduate School of Business professor; Council of Economic Advisers Chairman |
| Awards | John Bates Clark Medal (note: not awarded); Arrow Award (note: not awarded) |
Edward Lazear was an American economist known for empirical work on personnel economics, labor markets, and human capital. He served as Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush and was the Morris Arnold and Nona Jean Cox Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. His research bridged academic theory and public policy, influencing debates involving firms like General Electric, policy venues such as Congress of the United States, and institutions including the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Born in Newark, New Jersey, he attended Weequahic High School and later studied at the University of California, Berkeley where he received undergraduate training in economics and related fields. He completed graduate work at Princeton University under advisors associated with theories connected to Milton Friedman, Gary Becker, and Kenneth Arrow. His doctoral research engaged with topics that intersected with scholarship from Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Chicago.
He joined the faculty at the Stanford Graduate School of Business after earlier appointments at institutions tied to the National Bureau of Economic Research and visiting positions at London School of Economics, University of California, Los Angeles, and Yale University. He held affiliations with the American Economic Association, served on editorial boards of journals such as the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Political Economy, and American Economic Review, and mentored doctoral students who later taught at Princeton University, Harvard University, University of Chicago, Columbia University, and University of Pennsylvania. His teaching connected to executive programs run with McKinsey & Company, The World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund.
He pioneered personnel economics by integrating incentives, productivity measurement, and compensation systems influenced by earlier work from Adam Smith, Alfred Marshall, Jacob Mincer, and Gary Becker. His models addressed the design of piece rates, tournaments, promotion ladders, and compensation contracts, engaging empirical methods from the National Bureau of Economic Research and events studied by scholars at Carnegie Mellon University, University of California, Berkeley, and Northwestern University. He produced influential papers on wage structure and job assignment that dialogued with literature from John Maynard Keynes-era macroeconomists, empirical frameworks used at RAND Corporation, and behavioral insights popularized by researchers at Princeton University and Harvard University. His work on human capital built upon the legacy of Theodore Schultz and James Heckman, using datasets similar to those curated by Bureau of Labor Statistics and analyses comparable to projects at the Census Bureau. He applied statistical techniques championed by scholars at Stanford University, Yale University, and the University of Chicago, and his empirical findings influenced corporate practices at General Motors, Ford Motor Company, and Microsoft.
Appointed by George W. Bush as Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, he advised on fiscal and labor-market policy amid events like the early 2000s recession and discussions surrounding tax policy debated in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives. He contributed to analyses that intersected with regulations overseen by the Department of Labor, monetary policy deliberations involving the Federal Reserve System, and international negotiations tied to World Trade Organization discussions. His tenure engaged public debates involving figures such as Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan, Paul Volcker, and policymakers at the Treasury Department and Office of Management and Budget. After government service, he returned to Stanford and to research collaborations with scholars at the Hoover Institution, Brookings Institution, and American Enterprise Institute.
He was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences-adjacent communities, with recognition from organizations such as the National Bureau of Economic Research and professional societies including the American Economic Association and Society of Labor Economists. He served on advisory boards for foundations like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, panels at the National Science Foundation, and committees linked to the Russell Sage Foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York. His professional network included collaborations with scholars at Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, University of Michigan, and Duke University.
He lived in Stanford, California and engaged with local institutions including Stanford University, the Hoover Institution, and community organizations in Santa Clara County. Colleagues from Stanford Graduate School of Business, the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the American Economic Association remember his role in establishing personnel economics as a mainstream field alongside contemporaries connected to Chicago School of Economics, Beckerian economics, and empirically driven labor research. His students and coauthors at University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University, and Princeton University continue to extend his methods into studies involving firms like Amazon (company), Google LLC, and Apple Inc., and policy debates in venues such as the United States Congress and international forums including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Category:American economists Category:Stanford University faculty Category:1948 births Category:2020 deaths