Luigi Zingales studies the theory of the firm, the relation between organization and financing, and the going-public decision. In addition to holding his position at the GSB, Zingales is currently a faculty research fellow for the National Bureau of Economic Research, a research fellow for the Center for Economic Policy Research, and a fellow of the European Governance Institute. He is also the director of the American Finance Associations and an editorialist for Il Sole 24 Ore, the Italian correspondent of the Financial Times. Zingales also serves on the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, which has been examining the legislative, regulatory, and legal issues affecting how public companies function.
His research has earned him the 2003 Bernacer Prize for the best European young financial economist, the 2002 Nasdaq award for best paper in capital formation, and a National Science Foundation Grant in economics. His work has been published in the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Finance and the American Economic Review.
His book, Saving Capitalism from Capitalists, coauthored with Raghuram G. Rajan, has been acclaimed as "one of the most powerful defenses of the free market ever written" by Bruce Bartlett of National Review Online. Martin Wolf of the Financial Times called it "an important book."
Born in Italy, a country with high inflation and unemployment that has inspired his professional interests as an economist, Zingales carries with him a political passion and the belief that economists should not just interpret the world, they should change it for the better. Commenting on his method of teaching on a few very important lessons rather than a myriad of details, Zingales says, "Twenty years from now they might have forgotten all the details of my course, but hopefully they will not have forgotten the way of thinking.
Zingales received a bachelor's degree in economics summa cum laude from Universita Bocconi in Italy in 1987 and a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992. He joined the GSB faculty in 1992.
In addition to teaching and researching, Zingales enjoys cooking and spending time with his children.
