Edward Glaeser is the Fred and Eleanor Glimp professor of economics at Harvard University. He serves as the director of the Taubman Center for State and Local Government and as director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at the Kennedy School of Government.
Glaeser’s work applies microeconomic and game theoretic thinking to social phenomena with often surprising results. Examining why the United States has not adopted the European-style welfare state model, Glaesar points to American racial heterogeniety, racism, and an accompanying unwillingness to redistribute down to a predominantly black underclass through the political process. On the issue of the ever-expanding American waistline, Glaeser elegantly attributes it to the declining monetary and time costs of procuring, preparing, and cleaning up after food in an age of abundance. Glaeser is probably most noted for his groundbreaking work on the determinants of city growth and the role of cities as centers of idea transmission.
Glaeser edits the Quarterly Journal of Economics. He writes a regular column for the New York Sun.
Glaeser earned his B.A. from Princeton University and his PhD in economics from the University of Chicago.