Robert Z. Lawrence

Robert Z. Lawrence, nonresident senior fellow since 2001, is the Albert L. Williams Professor of Trade and Investment at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a global fellow of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, and the chair of the advisory board of the University of Witwatersrand School of Governance, Johannesburg, South Africa.

He served as a member of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers from March 1999 to January 2001. At the Brookings Institution Lawrence was a senior fellow from 1983 to 1991 and held the New Century Chair as a nonresident fellow after 1993. He has also served as a consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Lawrence was also a member of the Presidential Commission on United States–Pacific Trade and Investment Policy, and the International Advisory Panel of the South African government's Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative in 2006 and 2007. He has advised numerous governments and served as a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Trade Agenda Council, the advisory committees of the Peterson 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, the Panel of Economic Advisers of the Congressional Budget Office, and the Mastercard Global Panel.

Lawrence is author or coauthor of over 100 papers and articles and 30 books and monographs on topics in the field of international economics. His books include Behind the Curve: Can Manufacturing Still Provide Inclusive Growth? (2024), Rising Tide: Is Growth in Emerging Economies Good for the United States? (2013), Blue-Collar Blues: Is Trade to Blame for Rising US Income Inequality? (2008), Case Studies in US Trade Negotiation (2006), Anchoring Reform with a US-Egypt Free Trade Agreement (2005), Has Globalization Gone Far Enough? The Costs of Fragmented Markets (2004), Crimes and Punishment? Retaliation under the WTO (2003), and Globaphobia: Confronting Fears about Open Trade (Brookings Institution Press, 1998). 

Non-Institute Publications

"How Should Sub-Saharan African Countries Think about Global Value Chains?" Bridges Africa, 2:1, March 2013, pp. 12–16.

Succeeding in the Global Economy: An Adjustment Assistance Program for American Workers [PDF], Financial Services Forum White Paper, with Grant D. Aldonas and Matthew J. Slaughter, July 2008.

Stabilizing State and Local Budgets: A Proposal for Tax-base Insurance, Brookings Institution Policy Brief and Discussion Paper 2008–01, with Akash Deep, June 2008.
Discussion Paper
Policy Brief

The Global Enabling Trade Report 2008, World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland, June 18 2008.