NSF To Award Ec Prof $500K Research Grant

A Harvard economics professor has been named the first social scientist to receive a National Science Foundation (NSF) award worth $500,000 over three years, foundation officials announced earlier this week.

Professor of Economics Lawrence H. Summers was selected for the Alan T. Waterman Award, given annually to a promising young researcher in a scientific field supported by the NSF, said Thomas Ubois, executive officer for the NSF's National Science Board (NSB).

The grant, for academics under the age of 35, "is intended to continue the outstanding research the investigator is expected to do. It gives promising young people a real opportunity," Ubois said.

The winner can use the money in any way he wishes, in accordance with the grant policies of the NSF, Waterman Committee executive secretary Lois J. Hamaty said.

Summers' work covers several fields, including macroeconomics, labor market interests and corporate capital developments, said James M. Poterba '80, associate economics professor at MIT and a colleague of Summers.

The second Harvard professor to receive the award in its 12-year history, Summers is currently on sabbatical at the London School of Economics. He will return to the U.S. to receive his award in Washington on May 20.

As the award is going to an economist for the first time, the NSF action should be seen as "recognizing the legitimacy of economics as a real science," Ubois said. "Some people think social science is an oxymoron."

"Naturally, economists are in- terested in being a part of the largerscientific plate," said Walburg Professor ofEconomics emeritus John Kenneth Galbraith.

Summers was selected from a pool of 165applicants nominated by their respectiveinstitutions, Hamaty said.

"I expect [Summers'] future research will be ahallmark of excellence," NSF director Erich Blochsaid.

"He's one of the leading economists of his agein his areas," said Assistant Economics ProfessorLawrence B. Lindsey. "If anyone in the departmentwere to get that award, I would say he is anexcellent choice."

"Most of Summers' work is not only of academicinterest, but also of substantial interest forpolicy purposes," Poterba said.

Most recently Summers has been developingtheories for why employment rates in Europe andparts of the U.S. have remained at consistentlyhigh levels, Poterba said.

By developing different models of union andworker behavior, Summers has taken a differentapproach to the study of unemployment thanmainstream neoclassicists who predict that thenumber of jobless people always drops in the longrun.

"He has been at the center of much controversy"over these new ideas, Poterba said.

Summers also studies how taxation of corporatecapital affects growth in the economy.

"A pressing national policy issue is whatexplains the decline of U.S. competitivenessabroad and the declineing rate of U.S.productivity growth. A common villain in thisdiscussion is the taxation of corporate capital,and Larry has done a great deal of workunderstanding [this villain]," Poterba said