Glenn Loury : biography

Glenn Cartman Loury (born September 3, 1948) is an American academic and author. He is the Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences and Professor of Economics at Brown University.

Biography

Early years

Loury was born in Chicago, Illinois. In 1972, he received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Northwestern University. In 1976 he received his Ph.D. in economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Career

At age 35, he was the first black tenured professor of economics in the history of Harvard University.

In 1984, Loury drew the attention of critics with "A New American Dilemma", published in The New Republic, where he addressed what he terms "fundamental failures in black society" such as "the lagging academic performance of black students, the disturbingly high rate of black-on-black crime, and the alarming increase in early unwed pregnancies among blacks."

In 1987, Loury’s career continued its ascent when he was selected to be the next Undersecretary of Education, a position which would have made him the second-highest-ranking black person in the Reagan administration. However, Loury withdrew from consideration on June 1, three days before being charged with assault after a "lover’s quarrel" with a 23-year-old woman. Loury was later arrested for possession of cocaine.

After a subsequent period of seclusion and self-reflection, Loury reemerged as a born-again Christian and described himself as a "black progressive". Loury left Harvard in 1991 to go to Boston University, where he headed the Institute on Race and Social Division. In 2005, Loury left Boston University for Brown University, where he was named a professor in the Economics Department, and a research associate of the Population Studies and Training Center.

Loury’s areas of study include applied microeconomic theory: welfare economics, game theory, industrial organization, natural resource economics, and the economics of income distribution.

Publications

Personal life

Loury and his late wife, Tufts economist Linda Datcher Loury, have two sons, Glenn II and Nehemiah.