Lawrence Summers

File:Larry Summers.jpg

Larry Summers

Lawrence Henry Summers (born November 30, 1954) is an American economist, politician, and academic. He was Secretary of the Treasury for the last year and a half of the Clinton administration, and has been the President (27th) of Harvard University since 2001. On February 21, 2006, he resigned the presidency effective June 30, 2006.

Early life

Born in New Haven, Connecticut on November 30, 1954, Summers is the son of two economists, as well as the nephew of two Nobel laureates in economics: Paul Samuelson (sibling of father Robert Summers, who changed the family name from Samuelson to Summers) and Kenneth Arrow (his mother's sibling). He spent most of his childhood in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, where he attended Harriton High School

At age 16, he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he originally intended to study physics but soon switched to economics (B.S., 1975). He was also an active member of the MIT debating team. He attended Harvard University as a graduate student (Ph.D., 1982), where he studied under economist Martin Feldstein. He has had stints teaching at both MIT and Harvard. In 1983, at age 28, Summers became one of the youngest tenured professors in Harvard's history. Recently, in December 2005, Summers married a Harvard English professor, Dr. Elisa New.

Professional life

Academic economist

As a researcher, Summers has made important contributions in many areas of economics, primarily public finance, labor economics, financial economics, and macroeconomics. To a lesser extent, Summers has also worked in international economics, economic demography, economic history, and development economics. His work generally places emphasis in the analysis of empirical economic data in order to answer well-defined questions (for example: Does saving respond to after-tax interest rates? Are the returns from stocks and stock portfolios predictable?, Are most of those who receive unemployment benefits only transitorily unemployed?, etc.) For his work he received the John Bates Clark Medal in 1993 from the American Economic Association (an honor economists often consider as prestigious as the Nobel Prize). In 1987 he was the first social scientist to win the Alan T. Waterman Award from the National Science Foundation. Summers is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Public official and educational administrator

Summers' signature, as used on American currency

Summers left Harvard in 1991 and served as Chief Economist for the World Bank (1991–1993) and later in various posts in the United States Department of the Treasury under the Clinton administration. From 1999 to 2001 he served as Secretary of the Treasury, a position in which he succeeded his long-time political mentor Robert Rubin. In 2001, he left the Treasury and returned to Harvard as its President.

Controversies

Exporting polluting industry to poor countries

In December 1991, while at the World Bank, Summers signed a memo, written by economist Lant Pritchett [1], an excerpt of which has become known as the infamous Summers memo. The excerpt, an "ironic aside" according to its author, argued that pollution from First World countries should be dumped into Third World countries:

"The Memo

DATE: December 12, 1991 TO: Distribution FR: Lawrence H. Summers Subject: GEP

'Dirty' Industries: Just between you and me, shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging MORE migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs [Less Developed Countries]? I can think of three reasons:

1) The measurements of the costs of health impairing pollution depends on the foregone earnings from increased morbidity and mortality. From this point of view a given amount of health impairing pollution should be done in the country with the lowest cost, which will be the country with the lowest wages. I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that.

2) The costs of pollution are likely to be non-linear as the initial increments of pollution probably have very low cost. I've always though that under-populated countries in Africa are vastly UNDER-polluted, their air quality is probably vastly inefficiently low compared to Los Angeles or Mexico City. Only the lamentable facts that so much pollution is generated by non-tradable industries (transport, electrical generation) and that the unit transport costs of solid waste are so high prevent world welfare enhancing trade in air pollution and waste.

3) The demand for a clean environment for aesthetic and health reasons is likely to have very high income elasticity. The concern over an agent that causes a one in a million change in the odds of prostrate cancer is obviously going to be much higher in a country where people survive to get prostrate cancer than in a country where under 5 mortality is is 200 per thousand. Also, much of the concern over industrial atmosphere discharge is about visibility impairing particulates. These discharges may have very little direct health impact. Clearly trade in goods that embody aesthetic pollution concerns could be welfare enhancing. While production is mobile the consumption of pretty air is a non-tradable.

The problem with the arguments against all of these proposals for more pollution in LDCs (intrinsic rights to certain goods, moral reasons, social concerns, lack of adequate markets, etc.) could be turned around and used more or less effectively against every Bank proposal for liberalization.."

Public outrage at the public revelation of this memo was staggering, and was strongly criticized by environmentalists and others critical of neoliberal economics, who believe it to be consistent with his attitudes in general and a symbol of "the arrogant ignorance of many conventional 'economists' concerning the nature of the world we live in" (Brazilian Secretary of the Environment Jose Lutzenberger). Summers maintained that the memo was misunderstood, offered as a "sardonic counterpoint, an effort to sharpen the analysis."

Early controversy as President of Harvard

Summers is a steadfast defender of free trade and globalization, and his positions on a number of politically-charged subjects tend to fall to the right of the average members of American academia. This, together with his brusque style of management and his call to stress the hard sciences in the undergraduate core curriculum, have made him controversial as President of Harvard, particularly among his colleagues in the humanities and social sciences.

Early in his tenure, he criticized high-profile African-American Studies professor Cornel West in a private meeting between the two, alleging grade inflation in West's introductory ethnic studies course and criticizing West for devoting too much time to extracurricular pursuits in political activism and spoken-word poetry, which he mistakenly characterized as rap music. West responded angrily and publicly, and later accepted an open invitation to transfer to Princeton University.

In 2002, Summers controversially used the race card, stating that a campaign by Harvard and MIT faculty to have their universities divest from companies with Israeli holdings was part of a larger trend among left-leaning academics that is "anti-Semitic in effect, if not in intent."

Differences between males and females

In January 2005, Summers gave a speech [2] at an economic conference in which he discussed possible reasons for the current underrepresentation of women at the top in many fields, especially in science and engineering. He said that although his remarks were provocative, it was vitally important to study the underlying reasons. These may include social issues, such as willingness to commit fully to a highly demanding career, and biological differences between the genders. An excerpt from the speech:

"So my best guess, to provoke you, of what's behind all of this is that the largest phenomenon, by far, is the general clash between people's legitimate family desires and employers' current desire for high power and high intensity, that in the special case of science and engineering, there are issues of intrinsic aptitude, and particularly of the variability of aptitude, and that those considerations are reinforced by what are in fact lesser factors involving socialization and continuing discrimination. I would like nothing better than to be proved wrong."

His remarks generated a media controversy over the question of gender differences, and provoked criticism from Harvard faculty. Though he initially defended his original opinion, in a later statement he claimed that "The issue of gender difference is far more complex than comes through in my comments, and my remarks about variability [in the ability of men and women] went beyond what the research has established." [3]

Some members of the Harvard community eagerly defended Summers in the midst of the controversy. Steven Pinker penned a piece for the New Republic, arguing that Summers' assertions were reasonable and within the academic spirit of free inquiry. Arvind Vaz made the case before the Harvard Political Union that Summers was merely putting forth a compelling hypothesis to explain a puzzling reality.

Although the subject is widely controversial, intelligence research shows that only the variance in mathematical and scientific ability is greater in males, meaning there are more male individuals at the high and low extremes.^[4] See sex and intelligence for further discussion.

Summers' opposition and support at Harvard

On March 15, 2005, members of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which instructs graduate students in GSAS and undergraduates in Harvard College, passed 218-185 a motion of "lack of confidence" in the leadership of Summers, with 18 abstentions. A second motion that offered a milder censure of the president passed 253 to 137, also with 18 abstentions. [5]

The lack of confidence measure is different from a "no-confidence" vote, which in the British parliamentary system causes the fall of a government, and it has no formal effect on the president's position. The members of the Harvard Corporation, the University's highest governing body, are in charge of the selection of the president and have issued statements strongly supporting Summers.

FAS faculty are not unanimous in their comments on Summers. Influential psychologist Steven Pinker defended the legitimacy of Summers's January remarks. When asked if Summers’ remarks were "within the pale of legitimate academic discourse," Pinker responded "Good grief, shouldn’t everything be within the pale of legitimate academic discourse [...] There is certainly enough evidence for the hypothesis to be taken seriously." [6]

In July 2005, the only African American board member of Harvard Corporation, Conrad K. Harper, resigned saying he was angered both by the university president's comments about women and by Summers being given a salary increase. (Some reports suggest Harper's support of Summers may have first started to erode earlier beause of the Cornel West controversy.) The resignation letter to the president said, "I could not and cannot support a raise in your salary, ... I believe that Harvard's best interests require your resignation." [7] [8]

Resignation

On February 20, 2006, rumors began to swirl around Harvard's campus and alumni mailing lists that Summers would announce his resignation the following day.

On February 21, 2006, Summers announced his intention to step down at the end of the school year. Former University President Derek Bok will act as Interim President while the University searches for a replacement. Summers has been invited to return to the University following a planned sabbatical for the 2006-07 academic year as one of Harvard's select University Professors. According to friends, however, he may decline the invitation and may instead find work on Wall Street or with the 2008 Democratic presidential campaign.

References

• Clinton, Bill (2005). My Life. Vintage. ISBN 140003003X.
• Finder, Alan and Kate Zernike (February 21, 2006). Harvard President Has Decided to Resign, Officials Say. New York Times

External links

• Official bio (at Harvard)
• Who Is Larry Summers? BusinessWeek, May 24, 1999.
• How the Great Brain Learned to Grin and Bear it Slate, June 29, 2001.
• Renaissance Man The Guardian, October 5, 2004.
• Larry Summers' War Against the Earth Counterpunch

Differences between males and females controversy

• Transcript of Summers' remarks at NBER Conference on Diversifying the Science & Engineering Workforce
• Letter from President Summers on women and science
• Harvard Students for Larry (students who are supporting Summers during his confrontation with the Harvard faculty)
• The Education of Larry Summers, Steve Sailer, The American Conservative, Feb. 2005. (Critical of feminism)
• "Harvard Chief Again to Face Angry Faculty Over Remarks" by Jonathan Finer for The Washington Post, February 22, 2005
• The Harvard Crimson: President Summers Controversy (The Crimson's coverage of both the women in science and lack of confidence imbroglios)
• Lawrence Summers controversial comments on women and science
• 'Intrinsic Apptitude' remark one of the most egregious examples of politically correct language for 2005
• Free speech and academia: What is happening at Harvard would be funny were it not outrageous The Economist, February 24, 2005
• Harvard's disgrace:Its faculty have censured Larry Summers. They, not he, should be ashamed The Economist, March 17, 2005

References

• ^ Larry V. Hedges; Amy Nowell (1995). "Sex Differences in Mental Test Scores, Variability, and Numbers of High-Scoring Individuals". Science. 269: 41–45.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)