“even small differences in the standard deviation [between genders] will translate into very large differences in the available pool substantially out [from the mean]”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Figure timeline
Lawrence Summers
Lawrence Henry Summers is an American economist. He served as the 71st United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2001, the 27th president of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006, and the eighth director of the National Economic Council from 2009 to 2010. He was the Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard Kennedy School until his resignation in February 2026.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
science · American economist (born 1954) · economist · university teacher · professor · scientist · politician · banker · also Lawrence Summers, Larry Summers, Lawrence H. Summers, Lawrence Henry Summers, Summers
Born 30 November 1954 · Q317953
67 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
Photos & media
6 photos
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
In the news
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Recent highlights
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
- Quote
- Quote
2026· 3 entries
“This historic legislation will better enable American companies to compete in the new economy.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Summers announced that he would resign from his professorship at Harvard, as well as from his directorship of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, at the end of the 2025–2026 academic year due to cont
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2025· 7 entries
The American Economic Association (AEA) imposed a lifetime ban on Summers, prohibiting him from holding membership in the association or participating in any AEA-sponsored events, including attending or speaking at its a
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
RealClearMarkets: Why Was Lawrence Summers So In Demand to Begin With?
- #news
- #headline
The American Conservative: After Epstein Revelations, Lawrence Summers to Reduce Public Profile
- #news
- #headline
Summers also ended his role as a paid contributor to Bloomberg News
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Summers agreed to step back from his public commitments such as his role in the advisory group of The Yale Budget Lab, his role in the advisory group of the Hamilton Project (an economics policy arm of the Brookings Inst
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
President Trump directed the United States Department of Justice to investigate Epstein's relationship with, among others, Summers
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Revealed frequent email communication between Summers and Epstein from 2017 to 2019
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2024· 1 entry
Summers had also been on the advisory board of SandboxAQ since August 2024; as of 19 November 2025, he was no longer listed as an advisor.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #business-interests
2023· 1 entry
Following detailed reporting by The Wall Street Journal regarding his many years of fund-raising activities for Harvard University with Jeffrey Epstein
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2022· 1 entry
Claimed: ““When you have unemployment below 4% and inflation above 4%, recession always follows within two years.”” — rated Mostly False by PolitiFact.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-by-figure
2020· 1 entry
Campaign: 2020 presidential election.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #election
- #campaign
2016· 3 entries
In favor of leaving the European Union as the "worst self-inflicted policy wound that a country has done since the Second World War"
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Remarking upon political correctness in institutions of higher education, Summers said:
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
“I believe the risks to the US and global economies of Mr Trump”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
2014· 1 entry
Summers emailed Epstein requesting "small scale philanthropy advice" for his wife's nonprofit, Verse Video Education
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2013· 2 entries
Summers became an early angel investor in India's first car rental company, Zoomcar, which was started by his former Harvard Teaching Fellow
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Summers was Obama's preferred candidate to succeed Ben Bernanke as chair of the Federal Reserve
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2011· 1 entry
Awarded Global Economy Prize (2011).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
2010· 1 entry
In an interview on ABC's This Week program, Clinton said Summers was wrong in the advice he gave him not to regulate derivatives
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2009· 5 entries
Awarded Adam Smith Award (2009).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Summers came under renewed criticism after it was disclosed that he was paid millions of dollars the previous year by companies which he now had influence over as a public servant
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Summers replied that "there are a lot of terrible things that have happened in the last eighteen months, but what's happened at A
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
To serve in the Obama administration, he reported a net worth between $17 million and $39 million
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Career landmark: Director of the National Economic Council (2009–2010).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
2007· 1 entry
Awarded honorary doctor of Harvard University (2007).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
2006· 2 entries
Summers announced his intention to step down at the end of the school year effective June 30, 2006
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
As of 2006, Summers resided in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #personal-life
2005· 1 entry
Members of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which instructs graduate students in Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and undergraduates in Harvard College, passed 218–185 a motion of "lack of confidence
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2004· 1 entry
A federal judge ruled that while Harvard had violated the contract, Shleifer and his associate alone were liable for treble damages
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2003· 1 entry
During Summers's tenure as president, detailed a reportedly "special connection" between Summers and Jeffrey Epstein
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2001· 2 entries
Summers met then-Harvard College English professor Elisa New; they married in December 2005 at Elmwood and spent their honeymoon on Little Saint James
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Career landmark: President of Harvard University (2001–2006).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
2000· 1 entry
Won Golden Plate Award (2000).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #trophy
- #achievement
1999· 7 entries
Succeeded Rubin as Secretary of the Treasury
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Summers endorsed the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act which removed the separation between investment and commercial banks, saying "With this bill, the American financial system takes a major step forward towards the 21st Century
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Succeeded Robert Rubin as Secretary of the Treasury
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Which lifted more than six decades of restrictions against banks offering commercial banking, insurance, and investment services (by repealing key provisions in the 1933 Glass–Steagall Act): "Today Congress voted to upda
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
“to date there has been no clear evidence of a need for additional regulation of the institutional OTC derivatives market, and we would submit that proponents of such regulation must bear the burden of demonstrating that need.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Summers listed assets of about $900,000 and debts, including a mortgage, of $500,000
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Career landmark: United States Secretary of the Treasury (1999–2001).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
1998· 3 entries
Then-Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Summers testified before the U
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a Concept Release soliciting input from regulators, academics, and practitioners to determine "how best to maintain adequate regulatory safeguards with
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
When Summers was United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury and at least three times while Harvard president
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1995· 2 entries
Career landmark: United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury (1995–1999).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Was promoted to Deputy Secretary of the Treasury under his long-time political mentor Robert Rubin
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1994· 1 entry
“Things take longer to happen than you think they will and then they happen faster than you think they will.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
1993· 3 entries
Won John Bates Clark Medal (1993).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #trophy
- #achievement
Summers was appointed Undersecretary for International Affairs and later in the United States Department of the Treasury under the Clinton Administration
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Summers was appointed Under Secretary for International Affairs of the United States Department of the Treasury under President Bill Clinton's administration
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1991· 4 entries
Career landmark: Chief Economist of the World Bank (1991–1993).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Working as the chief economist of the World Bank from 1991 to 1993
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
As the World Bank's Vice President of Development Economics and Chief Economist
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
And served as the Vice President of Development Economics and Chief Economist for the World Bank until 1993
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1987· 3 entries
Awarded Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1987).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Awarded Alan T. Waterman Award (1987).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Was the first social scientist to win the Alan T
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1985· 1 entry
Awarded Fellow of the Econometric Society (1985).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
1984· 1 entry
And had three children together, twin girls and a son
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1983· 3 entries
At age 28, Summers became one of the youngest tenured professors in Harvard's history
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Summers was diagnosed with late-stage Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1983, shortly after becoming a tenured professor at Harvard; he underwent nine months of chemotherapy treatment and has remained cancer-free.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #personal-life
Shortly after becoming a tenured professor at Harvard; he underwent nine months of chemotherapy treatment and has remained cancer-free
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1982· 1 entry
Studied at Harvard University, Doctor of Philosophy (1982).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #education
1975· 1 entry
Studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bachelor of Science (1975).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #education
1954· 1 entry
Born 1954-11-30.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #birth