Glenn Loury | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Born | Glenn Cartman Loury (1948-09-03)September 3, 1948 (age 77) |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 5 |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Northwestern University (BA) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD) |
| Doctoral advisor | Robert Solow[1] |
| Influences | Gary Becker Thomas Sowell |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Social economics |
| Institutions | University of Michigan Harvard University Boston University Brown University |
| Doctoral students | Rohini Somanathan |
| Notable ideas | Coate–Loury model |
| Website | |
Glenn Cartman Loury (born September 3, 1948) is an American economist, academic, and author. He is the Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences atBrown University, where he has taught since 2005 also as a professor of economics.[2] At the age of 33, Loury became the firstAfrican American professor of economics atHarvard University to gaintenure. Loury achieved some prominence during theReagan Era as a leadingblack conservative intellectual.[3][4] In the mid-1990s, following a period of seclusion, he came to adopt more progressive views.[5] Loury has somewhat re-aligned with views of theAmerican right, withThe New York Times describing his political orientation in 2020 as "conservative-leaning".[6][7][8]
Loury was born on September 3, 1948,[9] in theSouth Side ofChicago, Illinois, growing up in aredlined neighborhood. Before going to college he fathered two children, and supported them with a job in a printing plant. When he wasn't working he took classes atSoutheast Junior College, where he won a scholarship to study at Northwestern University.[10][11]
In 1972, Loury received aBachelor of Arts degree in mathematics fromNorthwestern University. He then received aPh.D. in economics from theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1976, writing his dissertation, "Essays in the Theory of the Distribution of Income", under the supervision of Nobel laureateRobert M. Solow.[12] At MIT he met his future wife,Linda Datcher Loury.[13]
Loury became an assistant professor of economics atNorthwestern University after receiving his doctorate. In 1979, he moved to teach at theUniversity of Michigan, and was promoted to full professor of economics in 1980.In 1982, at age 33, Loury became the first blacktenured professor of economics in the history ofHarvard University.[3] He moved to Harvard'sKennedy School of Government after two years.[14] While at Kennedy school he would befriendWilliam Bennett andBill Kristol.[3] He later said in an interview that his economics appointment was a mistake because he "wasn't yet fully established as a scientist".[15]
In 1987, Loury was under consideration to be anUndersecretaryof Education in theReagan administration. He withdrew from consideration on June 1, three days before citing personal reasons.[16] Loury was arrested for drug possession in December 1987, six months after his assault and battery charges on Pamela Foster.[17] After a subsequent period of seclusion and self-reflection, Loury reemerged as aborn-again Christian and described himself as a "blackprogressive."[18]Loury left Harvard in 1991 to go toBoston University, where he headed the Institute on Race and Social Division. In 2005, Loury left Boston University forBrown University, where he was named a professor in the Economics Department, and a research associate of the Population Studies and Training Center.
Loury's areas of study include appliedmicroeconomic theory:welfare economics,game theory,industrial organization,natural resource economics, and the economics ofincome distribution. In addition to economics, he has also written extensively on the themes of racial inequality and social policy.[19] Loury testified on racial issues before the Senate Banking Committee on March 4, 2021.[20] and presented at the Bruce D. Benson Center Lecture Series at theUniversity of Colorado Boulder on February 8, 2021.[citation needed] Loury hostsThe Glenn Show withJohn McWhorter, often regarding questions of race and education.[21][non-primary source needed]
On a 2017 episode of theSam Harris podcastMaking Sense, Loury stated that while he used to be "a Reagan conservative", he now thought of himself as a "centrist Democrat, or maybe a mildly right-of-center Democrat".[22]The New York Times has described Loury as "conservative-leaning" andThe Wall Street Journal as a "Reagan Republican".[23][24] On January 9, 2007, Loury had spoken out against increasing the number of U.S. troops inIraq.[25]
Loury was critical ofBarack Obama 2008 presidential campaign.[26] He continued to criticizeObama as president calling his tenure "depressing in the extreme" and also criticized Obama's closeness toAl Sharpton.[27][28] In 2016, he supportedHillary Clinton.[29] After the2016 U.S. presidential election, Loury warned it was dangerous for people not to recognizeDonald Trump as the 45th President. During debates withJohn McWhorter, Loury defendedDonald Trump.[30] During Trump's presidency he doubted claims that Trump was an existential threat to the public. After Trump refused to concede that he lost the2020 U.S. presidential election, he rebuked him.[31] Loury would later blame Trump for the2021 U.S. Capitol attack but opposedTrump's second impeachment.[32]
Loury opposesreparations for slavery andaffirmative action.[16][33] He has said that "affirmative action is not the solution, but neither is it the problem".[34] Conversely, he has criticized affirmative action saying, "Affirmative action is dishonest. It’s not about equality, it’s about covering ass."[35][36] In 1984, Loury drew the attention of critics with "A New American Dilemma", published inThe New Republic, a piece in which he addressed what he termed "fundamental failures in black society" such as "the lagging academic performance of black students, the disturbingly high rate of black-on-black crime, and the alarming increase in early unwed pregnancies among blacks".[37] In June 2020, Loury published a rebuttal to a letter that Brown University presidentChristina Paxson sent to students and alumni in response to themurder of George Floyd by a policeman. Loury questioned the purpose of Paxson's letter, saying it either "affirmed platitudes to which we can all subscribe, or, more menacingly, it asserted controversial and arguable positions as though they were axiomatic certainties."[38]
On immigration, Loury said in an interview segment inThe First Measured Century, "There are benefits of immigration, and there are also costs. The benefits in terms of cheaper, eager labor to help we Americans produce the products that we want to consume. The costs are in terms of making it more difficult to equalize the economic circumstances of some Americans who are at the bottom of the heap, because they now have more competition for their labor, as a result of immigration."[39]
Loury was elected as a member of theEconometric Society in 1994, Vice President of the American Economics Society in 1997, a member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000, and a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society in 2011.[40][41][42] He was elected president of the Eastern Economics Association in 2013. Loury is a member of theCouncil on Foreign Relations and is a main academic contributor to the1776 Unites project. He received theBradley Prize in 2022, and was named theJohn Kenneth Galbraith Fellow from theAmerican Academy of Political & Social Science for that same year.[43][44]
Loury fathered two children as a teenager with his first wife, Charlene.[45] He also has a son from another relationship, Alden, who serves as data projects editor forWBEZ in Chicago. Loury and his wife,Linda Datcher Loury, had two sons together.[45] Linda died in 2011.[13] He has since remarried.[46] In 2024, Loury announced his diagnosis ofarthritis andstenosis of the lower-mid spine. He underwent surgery on April 11, 2024, and plans further surgical treatments.[47]
