About

Short Biography

George J. Borjas is the Robert W. Scrivner Research Professor of Economics and Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. He was awarded the IZA Prize in Labor Economics in 2011. Professor Borjas is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a Research Fellow at IZA. Professor Borjas is the author of several books, including Immigration Economics (Harvard University Press, 2014), Heaven's Door: Immigration Policy and the American Economy (Princeton University Press, 1999), and the widely used textbook Labor Economics (McGraw-Hill, 2020), now in its eighth edition. His latest book is We Wanted Workers: Unraveling the Immigration Narrative, published by W. W. Norton in Fall 2016. He has also published over 170 articles in books and scholarly journals. His professional honors include citations in Who's Who in the World and Who's Who in America. Professor Borjas was elected a fellow of the Econometric Society in 1998 and a fellow of the Society of Labor Economists in 2004. In 2016, Politico listed Professor Borjas #17 in the list of the 50 "thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics...For telling it like it really is on immigration." He received his Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University in 1975.

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Long Biography

George J. Borjas is the Robert W. Scrivner Research Professor of Economics and Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. He was awarded the IZA Prize in Labor Economics in 2011.

Professor Borjas is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a Research Fellow at IZA. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University in 1975. Prior to moving to Harvard in 1995, he was a Professor of Economics at the University of California at San Diego.

Professor Borjas has written extensively on labor market issues. He is the author of several books, including Wage Policy in the Federal Bureaucracy (American Enterprise Institute, 1980), Friends or Strangers: The Impact of Immigrants on the U.S. Economy (Basic Books, 1990), Heaven's Door: Immigration Policy and the American Economy (Princeton University Press, 1999), Immigration Economics (Harvard University Press, 2014), and the widely used textbook Labor Economics (McGraw-Hill, 2020), now in its eighth edition. His latest book is We Wanted Workers: Unraveling the Immigration Narrative, published by W. W. Norton in Fall 2016. He has also published over 170 articles in books and scholarly journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics. His work has also appeared in major magazines and newspapers, including articles in The Atlantic Monthly and National Review, as well as editorials in The New York TimesThe Wall Street Journal, and Le Monde.

His professional honors include citations in Who's Who in the WorldWho's Who in AmericaWho's Who in Finance and IndustryWho's Who in Economics, and research grants from the National Science Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Smith-Richardson Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. Professor Borjas was elected a fellow of the Econometric Society in 1998 and a fellow of the Society of Labor Economists in 2004. Professor Borjas was an editor of the Review of Economics and Statistics, and has been on the editorial boards of the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the International Migration Review. He was a member of the Council of Economic Advisors for the Governor of California (1993-1998), of the National Academy of Sciences Panel on the Demographic and Economic Impact of Immigration (1995-1997), of a second National Academy of Sciences Panel on the Economic Impact of Immigration (2014-2016), and chaired the National Science Foundation's Committee of Visitors for the Economics Program (1996). Professor Borjas has also been a consultant to the Office of the Attorney General of the State of California, to the World Bank, and to law firms engaged in litigation involving employment and wage-setting in labor markets.

Professor Borjas's research on the economic impact of immigration is widely perceived as playing a central role in the debate over immigration policy in the United States and abroad. Business Week and The Wall Street Journal, in a front-page feature article, have called him "America's leading immigration economist". A cover story in The New York Times Magazine in 2006 focused on his work, and called him "the pre-eminent scholar in his field." In 2016, Politico listed Professor Borjas #17 in the list of the 50 "thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics...For telling it like it really is on immigration." He has appeared on many television news shows, and has testified before several congressional committees.

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