Short bio(<125 words):
Lant Pritchett is a development economist from Idaho. He graduated from BYU in 1983 and received his PhD in Economics from MIT in 1988. He worked for the World Bank from 1988 to 2007, living in Indonesia 1998-2000 and India 2004-2007. He taught at the Harvard Kennedy School from 2000 to 2019, and was, intermittently, the Faculty Chair of the MPA/ID Degree program. From 2018 to 2023 he was the Research Director of the RISE Programme at Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government. Having now thrice retired, he is currently a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics in the School of Public Policy and the co-founder and Research Director of Labor Mobility Partnerships (LaMP). He has published over a hundred works with over fifty co-authors. His work spans a range of development topics including: economic growth, state capability, basic education, labor mobility, development assistance (and more). His work has been, at times, influential, and his publications have been cited over 50,000 times.
Longer bio (250 words):
Lant Pritchett is a development economist from Idaho. After graduating from BYU with a BS in Economics in 1983 he attended MIT and received his PhD in 1988. He worked for the World Bank from 1988 to 2007, including living in Indonesia from 1998 to 2000 and in India from 2004 to 2007. He also taught at the Harvard Kennedy School from 2000 to 2004 and from 2007 to 2018. He was the He was the Research Director of the RISE Programme at Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government from 2018 to 2023. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the School of Public Policy at London School of Economics and is the co-founder and Research Director of LaMP (Labor Mobility Partnerships). He has published six books, been part of the team of two World Development Reports (1994 and 2004), and written over a hundred journal articles, book chapters, and working papers with over fifty different co-authors. He has written on a range of development issues including: economic growth, education, labor mobility, state capability, health, development assistance, social capital, population, international trade, safety net programs and methods of project evaluation. He was born in Utah, raised in Idaho and has lived in five countries, worked in dozens, and has visited more countries than he is years old. He has been happily married to Diane Tueller Pritchett since 1981 and has three children and four grandchildren. And, nothing else. He hasn’t climbed Everest, he hasn’t played the cello, he doesn’t write poetry. Being a decent husband, father and economist was all I could do. At the end of the day, I just collapse watch bad TV.
