{"id":59082,"date":"2021-12-09T12:29:06","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T17:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/?p=59082"},"modified":"2021-12-09T12:37:26","modified_gmt":"2021-12-09T17:37:26","slug":"endowed-professorships-expand-our-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/endowed-professorships-expand-our-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Endowed Professorships Expand Our Research"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Andrew Thurston<\/span><\/h6>\n

Loan sharks and drug dealers. Not two professions you\u2019d expect a labor economist to be scrutinizing, but Kevin Lang\u2019s research has long swerved into the unexpected to reveal new insights into human behavior and interactions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I decided I would do a master\u2019s degree, I literally wrote \u2018sociology,\u2019 then crossed it out and put \u2018economics\u2019,\u201d says <\/span>Lang, a professor of economics<\/span><\/a> who joined CAS in 1987. \u201cI\u2019ve always been interested in questions at the interstices of sociology and economics.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Professor of Economics Kevin Lang joined the College of Arts & Sciences in 1987.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In forthcoming papers, Lang will review 11,000 loan shark payouts to examine deal enforcement and look through the murky accounting books of low-level drug dealers to understand their labor practices. He\u2019ll also publish results from projects grounded in more familiar economics territory, including the impact of skills investment on job movement and racial discrimination on employment.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI like to work on a lot of different things,\u201d says Lang, who also <\/span>edits the <\/span>Journal of Labor Economics<\/span><\/i><\/a> and heads the Society of Labor Economists.<\/span><\/p>\n

In summer 2021, Lang\u2019s diverse efforts were given a significant boost when he was named the inaugural Laurence A. Bloom Professor of Economics. The endowed chair, which includes funding support, was <\/span>made possible by a gift from Bloom (DGE\u201966, CAS\u201968), an economics alum<\/span><\/a> and accomplished stock trader. Lang says having a named chair will allow him to further expand the scope of his research and hire a full-time research assistant.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bloom, who spent his career with Bristol-Myers Squibb, left $8.25 million to BU when he died in 2019. His donation also supported the founding of a need-based undergraduate scholarship, a humanities and social sciences Ph.D. fellowship fund, and a portion of the Wetherill-Bloom Career Development Professorship in the Humanities.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEndowed professorships are crucial in recognizing and supporting our most outstanding faculty scholars and teachers,\u201d says Stan Sclaroff, dean of CAS. \u201cHaving the world\u2019s leading scholars and researchers at Boston University brings great energy and inspiration to our students, both in classes with these faculty and in mentoring.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n