William Lazonick

William Lazonick is Professor in the Department of Regional Economic and Social Development at University of Massachusetts Lowell and Director of the UMass Lowell Center for Industrial Competitiveness. He is also affiliated with the Institute of International Business of Stockholm School of Economics and the CNRS Groupe de Recherche en Économie Théorique et Appliquée of Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV.

Previously, he was Assistant and Associate Professor of Economics at Harvard University (1975-1984) and Professor of Economics at Barnard College of Columbia University (1985-1993). He has also been on the faculties of the University of Tokyo (1996-1997), Harvard Business School (1984-1986), University of Toronto (1982-1983), and was a visiting member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (1989-1990). Numerous governmental agencies and private foundations in Europe, the United States, and Japan have funded his research.

In 1991 Professor Lazonick was the first economist to serve as president of the Business History Conference, the main professional association of business historians in the United States. His work through the early 1990s was the subject of a chapter in the volume, American Economists of the Late Twentieth Century (Elgar, 1996).  He was the youngest of 36 economists selected worldwide to write an autobiographical essay in Exemplary Economists (Elgar 2000). He is the author or editor of twelve books and some 100 academic articles. In recent years, much of his work has been translated into Chinese (among a number of other foreign languages). He is regularly invited to speak at academic conferences, research institutes, universities, government agencies, and corporate associations throughout the world.

Professor Lazonick holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto (1968), a Master of Science degree in economics from the London School of Economics (1969), and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in economics from Harvard University (1975). In 1991 Uppsala University awarded him an honorary doctorate for his work on the theory and history of economic development.

For Professor Lazonick’s research and downloadable papers, see his personal website at www.uml.edu/centers/CIC.