Robert Z. Lawrence was nominated by the President as a Member of the Council of Economic Advisers and was confirmed on August 5, 1999. Dr. Lawrence is currently on leave from Harvard University where he is the Albert L. Williams Professor of Trade and Investment at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Dr. Lawrence held the New Century Chair as a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and founded and edited the Brookings Trade Forum. He is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He also served as the Chair for the Project on Middle East Trade at the Institute for Social and Economic Policy in the Middle East, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Dr. Lawrence has been a senior fellow in the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution (1983-91), a Research Associate at Brookings (1976-82), an instructor at Yale University (1975), and a professorial lecturer at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (1978-81). He has served as a consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the World Bank, the OECD, and UNCTAD. He was a member of the Presidential Commission on United States Pacific Trade and Investment Policy, and has served as a member of the advisory committees of the Institute for International Economics, the Panel on Foreign Trade Statistics of the National Academy of Sciences, the Committee for Economic Development, the Overseas Development Council, and the Panel of Economic Advisors of the Congressional Budget Office.
Dr. Lawrence has written over 100 papers and articles on topics in the field of international economics. His recent research has focused on global integration, trade in the Middle East, and the impact of trade on the labor market. His books on domestic and international economic problems include: Single World, Divided Nations (1996); Regionalism, Multilateralism, and Deeper Integration, (1996); and Can America Compete?, (1984). He has co-authored Globaphobia: Confronting Fears About Open Trade, (1998) and A Vision for the World Economy: Openness, Diversity and Cohesion, (1996).
Dr. Lawrence was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. He emigrated to the United States in 1971, and studied in the U.S. at Yale University where he received his Ph.D. in Economics in 1978.
He is married to Nicole Reindorf, who is an independent television producer. They have two daughters, Alexandra and Natasha.
Robert Z. Lawrence, Member
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