Lawrence Summers Leaving Brookings to Become President of Harvard

Economist Lawrence H. Summers will leave The Brookings Institution this summer to become President of Harvard University. During his remaining months at Brookings, Summers will continue to work and speak on economic, globalization, and governance issues.

Summers was named the Arthur Okun Distinguished Fellow at Brookings in January after serving successively as Vice President and Chief Economist at the World Bank, and then Undersecretary for International Affairs, Deputy Secretary, and Secretary of the Treasury.

“We regret that Larry will not remain at Brookings as long as we had hoped, contributing his brilliant intellect and practical experience to our work on the challenging issues confronting our country and the world,” said Michael H. Armacost, president of The Brookings Institution. “However, we are honored to have him here and are proud that America’s most prestigious university has selected him to be its next president.”

Summers has had a long association with Brookings. He was a long-time member of the Brookings Panel on Economic Activity. In this capacity, during the 1980s he contributed a series of papers on various macroeconomic policy issues to Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, one of the leading journals of the economics profession.