Andrei Shleifer
Andrei Shleifer (born February 20, 1961) is a prominent academic economist. He was born in Russia and emigrated to the USA as a teenager. He then studied economics, obtaining his Ph.D. at MIT in 1986. He has held a post in the Department of Economics at Harvard University since 1991 and is currently the Whipple V. N. Jones Professor of Economics. In 1999, Shleifer was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal for his seminal works on behavioral finance.
Work
Andrei Shleifer is the most highly cited scientist in the fields of Business and Economics, garnering more than a thousand citations in the period of 1995 to 2005. (Citation rate is one measure of a scientist's impact on thought and practice in a particular field of endeavor.) His work focuses mostly on financial economics, where he has been one of the pioneers of the field of behavioral finance.
In recent years, his research has focused on the Legal Origins Theory (also sometimes known as Law and finance theory), which claims that the legal tradition a country adheres to (such as common law or various types of civil law) is an important determining factor for a country's development, most of all financial development.
Shleifer with his other colleagues (Rafael La Porta, Robert W. Vishny, Simeon Djankov and Florencio Lopez de Silanes) have written extensively on corporate governance. Shleifer is currently taking a sabatical from Harvard.
Activities in Russia
During the early 1990s, Andrei Shleifer was an advisor to Anatoly Chubais, the then vice-premier of Russia, and was one of the engineers of the Russian privatization. During that time, Harvard University was under a contract with the United States Agency for International Development, which paid Harvard and its employees to advise the Russian government.
Controversy
The US government alleged that Shleifer, his wife, his assistant Jonathan Hay, and Hay's girlfriend, had been buying Russian stocks while they were working on the country's privatization, which contravened Harvard's contract with USAID. In June 2005, Harvard and Shleifer announced that they had reached a tentative settlement with the US government. On August 3 of the same year, Harvard University, Shleifer and the Justice department reached an agreement under which the university will pay $26.5 million to settle the seven-year-old lawsuit. Shleifer is also responsible for paying 2 million dollars worth of damage, though he does not admit any liability. On April 24, 2006, the Harvard Crimson reported that Shleifer would be returning to Harvard in the fall to teach after the end of his sabbatical.
References
Botero, J., Djankov, S., La Porta, R., López de Silanes, F., and Shleifer, A. (2004) The Regulation of Labor, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 119: 1339-1382.
Djankov, S., La Porta, R., López de Silanes, F., and Shleifer, A. (2002) The Regulation of Entry, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117: 1-37.
Djankov, S., La Porta, R., López de Silanes, F., and Shleifer, A. (2003) Courts, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118: 453-517.
Essential Science Indicators (2004). Most-Cited Scientists in Economics & Business Thompson-ISI. Retrieved 2005-10-21.
La Porta, R., López de Silanes, F., Shleifer, A. and Vishny, R.W. (1998) Law and Finance, Journal of Political Economy, 106: 1113-1155
La Porta, R., López de Silanes, F., and Shleifer, A. (1999) Corporate Ownership Around the World, Journal of Finance, 54 (2): 471-517.
La Porta, R., López de Silanes, F., Shleifer, A. and Vishny, R.W. (2000) Investor Protection and Corporate Governance. Journal of Financial Economics 58: 3-27.
Shleifer, A. and Vishny, R.W. (1997) A Survey of Corporate Governance, Journal of Finance, 52 (2): 737-783
External links
- Staff Member page @ Harvard University
- Doing Business report @ World Bank
- Economic Principals (2004) Judge Finds Against Shleifer, Hay and Harvard
- Harvard Crimson (2005) Harvard to Pay $26.5M in HIID Settlement
- Harvard's Top Lawyer criticizes inaccuracies in Institutional Investor article
- Institutional Investor: How Harvard Lost Russia