NBER Profile: Josh Lerner

Josh Lerner is an NBER Research Associate in the Corporate Finance Program and the Productivity Program. In addition, he is an organizer of the NBER group on Innovation Policy and the Economy, and serves as co-editor of their publication, Innovation Policy and the Economy.

Lerner is also the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School, with a joint appointment in the Finance and Entrepreneurial Management Units. He graduated from Yale College with a Special Divisional Major that combined physics with the history of technology. After working for several years on issues concerning technological innovation and public policy -- at the Brookings Institution, for a public-private task force in Chicago, and on Capitol Hill -he obtained a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University.

Much of Lerner's research focuses on the structure and role of venture capital organizations. (He has two books on the subject: The Venture Capital Cycle, MIT Press, 1999, and The Money of Invention, HBS Press, 2001.) He also examines policies concerning intellectual property protection, particularly patents, and their impact on growth and high-technology industries. His work has been published in a variety of top academic journals.

He lives in Hamilton, Massachusetts, with his wife, Wendy Wood, and lots of four-legged friends. In his spare time, he enjoys nature and his Sicilian donkeys.

NBER Profile: Daron Acemoglu

Daron Acemoglu is a Research Associate in the NBER's Programs in Labor Studies and Economic Fluctuations and Growth and a Professor of Economics at MIT. He received a B.A. in economics at the University of York in 1989 and a Ph.D. in economics at the London School of Economics in 1992. Acemoglu joined the MIT faculty as an Assistant Professor of Economics in 1993, was promoted to Pentti Kouri Associate Professor in 1997, and to Professor of Economics in 2000.

His research covers a wide range of areas, including economic development, human capital theory, growth theory, search theory, and political economy. He is also editor of the Review of Economics and Statistics, and is associate editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the Journal of Economic Growth. His work has been published in a number of leading scholarly journals, including the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, and the Review of Economic Studies.

NBER Profile: Frank R. Lichtenberg

Frank R. Lichtenberg is a Research Associate in the NBER's Program on Productivity and Program on Health Care. He is also the Courtney C. Brown Professor of Business at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.

Lichtenberg received a B.A. in history from the University of Chicago and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. He previously taught at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania. He also has served as an expert for the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Dept. of Justice, and various state Attorneys General, and has testified before Congress. He has worked for several U.S. government agencies, including the Department of Justice, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Census Bureau, and has been a visiting scholar at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, the University of Munich, and elsewhere.

Some of Professor Lichtenberg's research has examined how the introduction of new technology arising from research and development affects the productivity of companies, industries, and nations. Recently he has performed studies of the impact of pharmaceutical innovation on longevity, the effect of computers on productivity in business and government organizations, and the consequences of takeovers and leveraged buyouts for efficiency and employment. His work is widely published in leading economic journals.

In his free time, Lichtenberg enjoys various sports (cycling, running, skiing, and squash), as well as music, theatre, and travel. He and his wife, Michelle, have two
sons, Andrew and Alec, and live in Scarsdale, NY.