Alberto Alesina

Alberto Alesina, born in Italy in 1957, was the Nathaniel Ropes Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University. He served as Chairman of the Department of Economics from 2003 - 2006. He obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1986. He was also a member of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the Center for Economic Policy Research. He was a member of the Econometric Society and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Few economists have had the gigantic impact on our discipline that Alberto Alesina had. Quite a few economists write great and important papers. Only a few write path-breaking and field-changing ones. And only a handful establish new fields. Alberto, the founder of the modern political economy, did just that. Alberto’s reach was boundless. Taking a genuinely interdisciplinary approach that combined economics with political science, sociology, history, and even cultural anthropology, he transformed economics for the better. He also had a profound impact on political science, paving the way for both more game-theoretic approaches and sound empirical research.