Richard B. Freeman

Acherman Professor of Economics Richard B. Freeman stepped into the limelight only at the end of spring semester.

But the early reaction to the study that put him there--"Area Economic Conditions and the Labor Market Outcomes of Young Men in the 1990s Expansion"--seems to indicate his work will continue to be in the public eye.

The significance of the study, researchers say, is the surprising degree to which employment opportunities have improved the overall life chances of black inner-city residents, even those with prison records.

Freeman and the study's co-author, William M. Rodgers III of the College of William and Mary, concluded that the men, ages 16 to 24 in the 322 cities they studied, are not only working and earning more, but also committing fewer crimes than they did a decade ago.

Freeman says the government does not have good job-training programs for the subjects of his study. Even if they did, however, he believes that the market can effect more change than politics can.

"The market can do what government programs can not do," Freeman says. "It's clear if you don't have a booming market, there's no way you're going to get these guys jobs."

But surprisingly, the study found that low-educated workers, both black and white, were employed in more precision-craft and skilled jobs than before--results Freeman called inspiring.

"I didn't anticipate that...It's good for the future," he says.

As his work indicates, Freeman is concerned about the implications of the widening discrepancy between the rich and poor in the U.S.--"a disaster."

His economic work has inspired somewhat liberal political views. Freeman is a believer in the earned income tax credit, a negative income tax for working parents and "shared capitalism," which he says gives workers shared decision-making stakes in the companies that employ them.

This economist has taken an active role in using scholarship to affect change. He is currently studying the sweatshop movement at Harvard and is working to make Election Day an official holiday so more people--particularly the poor--can go to the polls.

Freeman, who specializes in labor, employment and unions, has taught at Harvard since 1973. Previously, he worked at Yale--he calls the city and university "awful"--and the University of Chicago--"a great place."

Besides teaching two courses at Harvard, he serves as head of labor studies at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge and is co-chair of the Harvard Trade Union program. During the summer he and his family (including two children, Morgan, 8, and Ryana, 2) moves from Brookline to London, where he works as co-director of the Center for Economic Performance.