Lawrence F. Katz’s research examines a wide range of issues in labor economics and the economics of social problems, including comparative wage inequality trends, the impact of globalization on the labor market, unemployment and unemployment insurance, and the social and economic consequences of the birth control pill. He is perhaps best known for The Race Between Education and Technology, coauthored with Claudia Goldin, which studied the co-evolution of educational attainment and wage structure in the twentieth century and argued that the U.S.’s educational system is what made it the richest country in the world. Katz is also the principal investigator of the “Moving to Opportunity” housing mobility experiment and has been an editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics since 1991.
Professional positions
- 1986–present: Assistant to associate (1986–1991), full (1991–2003), and Elisabeth Allison (2003–present) Professor of Economics, Harvard University
- 1993–1994: Chief economist, United States Department of Labor (under President Bill Clinton)
- 1985–1986: Assistant professor, University of California, Berkeley
Notable publications
- Goldin, Claudia, and Lawrence F. Katz, eds. 2018. Women Working Longer: Increased Employment at Older Ages. University of Chicago Press.
- Goldin, Claudia, and Lawrence F. Katz. 2008. The Race Between Education and Technology. Harvard University Press.
- Freeman, Richard B., and Lawrence F. Katz, eds. 1995. Differences and Changes in Wage Structures. University of Chicago Press.
- Gibbons, Robert, and Lawrence F. Katz. 1991. “Layoffs and Lemons.” Journal of Labor Economics 9(4): 351–380.
Degrees
- PhD, economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- AB, economics, University of California, Berkeley
