Richard Freeman

Director of Labor Studies at the National Bureau of Economic Research

Richard B. Freeman holds the Herbert Ascherman Chair in Economics at Harvard University — currently serving as Faculty Co-Chair of the Harvard University Trade Union Program.

He is also director of the Labor Studies Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Senior Research Fellow in Labour Markets at the London School of Economics’ Centre for Economic Performance, and visiting professor at the London School of Economics.

Mr. Freeman is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of Sigma Xi. He has served on five panels of the National Academy of Sciences — including the Committee on National Needs for Biomedical and Behavioral Scientists.

He has published over 300 articles dealing with a wide range of research interests including the job market for scientists and engineers; the growth and decline of unions; the effects of immigration and trade on inequality; restructuring European welfare states; Chinese labor markets; transitional economies; youth labor market problems; crime; self-organizing non-unions in the labor market; employee involvement programs; and income distribution and equity in the marketplace.

Mr. Freeman is currently directing the NBER / Sloan Science Engineering Workforce Project and an LSE research program on the effects of the Internet on labor markets, social behavior and the economy.

In 2003, he delivered the University of Nottingham, World Economy Annual Lecture and was the Okun Lecturer, Yale University. In September of 2001, he delivered the first JP Morgan Fellow Lecture on “The Impact of the Internet on the Economy: Revolutionary Force or Overblown Hype?” at the Hans Arnhold Center, Germany.

In addition, Mr. Freeman has written or edited over 25 books, several of which have been translated into French, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese.