CAMBRIDGE, MA - Today, Harvard Kennedy School announced that Jason Furman has been named director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government (M-RCBG) by Dean Jeremy Weinstein. Furman will serve alongside co-director John Haigh, who has co-led the center since 2011.
Professor Furman is one of the nation's foremost economists and public intellectuals. He is the Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and the Department of Economics at Harvard University, and he teaches Economics 10—the largest course at the university. Furman previously served for eight years as a top economic adviser to President Obama, including serving as the 28th Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from August 2013 to January 2017, acting as both President Obama’s chief economist and a member of the cabinet. He is also a regular contributor to the New York Times and has conducted research on issues ranging from economic policy to fiscal issues to labor markets to the economic impacts of emerging technologies.
Professor Haigh has led M-RCBG for 15 years, helping build the center into what it is today. He is a Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and has taught widely on business strategy, regulation, and the intersection of the private sector and government. Before joining HKS as Executive Dean in 2005, Haigh held senior roles in industry and finance, bringing an invaluable business perspective to the center’s research and programming.
Under Furman and Haigh’s leadership, M-RCBG will work to help the world better understand and tackle the most pressing challenges of our time by conducting rigorous research, teaching and mentoring students, hosting practitioners and policymakers as fellows, and convening timely conversations between leading experts.
“M-RCBG is one of Harvard Kennedy School’s most critical intellectual homes — a place where the world’s best researchers and practitioners come together to explore how private and public institutions can work together to build a better world,” said Jeremy Weinstein, Dean of HKS and Don K. Price Professor of Public Policy. “We are thrilled to have Jason bring extraordinary vision, insights, and experience to this role. Together, he and John will lead the center into an exciting new chapter.”
“My career has been animated by trying to close the gap between economic research and real world policy,” said Jason Furman, Weil Director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. “M-RCBG has been doing this for decades, and I look forward to working with John to bring together faculty across Harvard, government, business, and other experts—with a diversity of perspectives and approaches—to better understand and address issues from the governance of artificial intelligence to industrial policy to macroeconomic management.”
“Since its founding M-RCBG has served as a vital bridge between the worlds of policy, business, and scholarship,” said Professor John Haigh, Co-Director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. “I’m thrilled to co-lead the Center with Jason — especially at this moment when the core questions about fiscal policy, technology, and economics have never felt more urgent or important. I look forward to what we’ll build together. His exceptional balance of rigorous economic training with practical experience as the Chair of the Council Economic Advisors are tremendous assets for the center.”
Across its various programs, M-RCBG produces key research and insights on healthcare, technology and innovation, labor, climate, macroeconomic policy, global trade, and other topics. The center also runs GrowthPolicy — a searchable repository of more than 8,000 articles, papers, videos, and interviews from Harvard faculty — that makes research freely accessible to policymakers, journalists, and the public around the world.
M-RCBG offers its students, fellows, and faculty a distinctive platform to make an impact. Through the center's competitive Senior Fellows and Fellows programs, practitioners from business, government, and finance spend a semester or academic year in residence at HKS, contributing to research and engaging directly with students. The center also hosts a robust seminar and events program that convenes leading policymakers, executives, and scholars to debate issues ranging from energy regulation and antitrust policy to the future of global trade and the governance of artificial intelligence.
For more information about M-RCBG, visit its website.