Lawrence Summers

Charles W. Eliot University Professor of Harvard University
Harvard Kennedy School
Office Address
Non Resident
Mailing Address
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Mailbox NR
79 JFK Street
Contact
Phone: 617-495-9322
Fax: 617-495-0436
Email: Lawrence_Summers@ksg.harvard.edu
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Profile

Lawrence H. Summers is Charles W. Eliot University Professor. He served as the 27th president of Harvard University from July 2001 until June 2006. From 1999 to 2001 he served as the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury following his earlier service as Deputy and Under Secretary of the Treasury and as Chief Economist of the World Bank. Prior to his service in Washington, Summers was a professor of economics at Harvard and MIT. His research contributions were recognized when he received the John Bates Clark Medal, given every two years to the outstanding American economist under the age of 40, and when he was the first social scientist to receive the National Science Foundations Alan T. Waterman Award for outstanding scientific achievement. He is a member of the National Academy of Science. He received his BS from MIT and his PhD in economics from Harvard. Among his other activities, Lawrence Summers writes a monthly column for the Financial Times, coedits the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, and serves as a managing director of D. E. Shaw, a major alternative investment firm. He also serves on a number of not-for-profit and for-profit boards. He is on leave in 2009-10 in government service as Director of the National Economic Council.

 

Research

For a complete list of faculty citations from 2001 - present, please visit the Harvard Kennedy School Research Report Online.

Selected Publication Citations:

  • Academic Journals
    • Summers, Lawrence H., and Richard Zeckhauser. "Policymaking for Posterity." Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 37.2 (December 2008): 115-140.
  • Book Chapters
    • Summers, Lawrence H. "Regionalism and the World Trading System." The WTO and Reciprocal Preferential Trading Agreements. Ed. Caroline Freund. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007, 421-427.
    • Summers, Lawrence H. "Afterword." The New Comparative Economic History. Ed. Timothy J. Hatton, Kevin H. O'Rourke, and Alan M. Taylor. The MIT Press, 2007, 395-399.
  • HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series
    • Summers, Lawrence H., and Richard Zeckhauser. "Policymaking for Posterity." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series and NBER Working Papers (RWP08-040 and 14359), August 2008.
  • Magazine and Newspaper Articles
    • Summers, Lawrence H. "Epiphanies: Lawrence Summers." Foreign Policy. March/April 2008.
  • Op-Eds
    • Summers, Lawrence H. "The $700bn Bail-out and the Budget." Financial Times, September 28, 2008.
    • Summers, Lawrence. "The Pendulum Swings Towards Regulation." Financial Times, October 26, 2008.
    • Summers, Lawrence H. "Obama's Down Payment: A Stimulus Must Aim for Long-Term Results." Washington Post, December 28, 2008.
  • Public Testimony
    • Summers, Lawrence H. Testimony to the Joint Economic Committee, U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, January 16, 2008.
    • Summers, Lawrence H. Testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, April 10, 2008.
    • Summers, Lawrence H. Testimony to the House Budget Committee, U.S. House of Representatives, September 9, 2008.