Andrei Shleifer stands as a preeminent scholar and the John L. Loeb Professor of Economics at Harvard University, where he has maintained a distinguished faculty position since 1991. He earned his undergraduate degree in Mathematics from Harvard in 1982 and completed his Ph.D. at MIT in 1986 with a dissertation titled The Business Cycle and the Stock Market. Prior to his Harvard appointment, Professor Shleifer held academic positions at Princeton University and the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, establishing an early reputation for interdisciplinary economic analysis. His career trajectory reflects a consistent commitment to bridging theoretical rigor with practical economic applications across multiple domains of inquiry.
Professor Shleifer has produced seminal contributions in comparative corporate governance, law and finance, behavioral finance, and institutional economics, fundamentally reshaping understanding in these fields. His influential publications include The Grabbing Hand co-authored with Robert Vishny and Inefficient Markets An Introduction to Behavioral Finance, both considered foundational texts in their respective areas. According to RePEc metrics, he ranks as the most cited economist globally, demonstrating the extraordinary impact of his research on academic discourse and policy formulation worldwide. His pioneering work on the relationship between legal institutions and financial market development has provided crucial frameworks that continue to inform economic policy decisions across diverse institutional contexts.
In recognition of his exceptional scholarly contributions, Shleifer received the prestigious John Bates Clark Medal from the American Economic Association in 1999, awarded to the most promising economist under forty. He has served as Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics and maintains fellowships in the Econometric Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Finance Association, reflecting his leadership in the discipline. Despite past controversies related to his advisory role with the Russian government during the 1990s transition period, Professor Shleifer remains an active and highly influential figure in economic research. His ongoing scholarship continues to advance understanding of investor psychology and financial fragility, as evidenced by his recent collaborative work A Crisis of Beliefs with Nicola Gennaioli, cementing his enduring impact on economic theory and practice.
