Stanford Graduate School of Business Prof. Edward Lazear was nominated yesterday by President George W. Bush to the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA).

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Courtesy of Stanford Graduate School of Business

Professor Edward Paul Lazear of the Graduate School of Business.

As the Jack Steele Parker Professor of Human Resources Management and Economics at the GSB, Lazear has taught at the University since 1992. He also serves as the Morris Arnold Cox Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

Lazear’s nomination to the three-person advisory council was announced yesterday. Filling the vacant position left by Ben Bernanke, Bush’s replacement for current Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan, Lazear will likely serve as the chairman of the CEA. However, his confirmation will only occur after a Senate vote.

Established by the Employment Act of 1946, the CEA is designed “to provide the president with objective economic analysis and advice on the development and implementation of a wide range of domestic and international economic policy issues,” according to the organization’s Web site.

A White House economic think-tank, the CEA currently consists of Katherine Baicker of UCLA and Matthew Slaughter of Dartmouth College.

GSB Dean Robert Joss said that he believes Lazear will serve as an invaluable member of the Council.

“Ed Lazear will bring significant depth of knowledge and insight to the White House Council of Economic Advisors,” he said in a press release. “The scope of his work in economics is extremely broad, including productivity, incentives, employment, education, immigration and other economic reforms.”

At the GSB, Lazear has specialized in microeconomic studies, particularly personnel economics. Founder of the “Journal of Labor Economics,” Lazear is widely published in the field and has established significant academic credentials.

Prior to his nomination to the CEA, Lazear was selected by Bush to the Tax Reform Panel in early 2005. On the panel, Lazear was active in his study of the tax code and methods by which greater efficiency and production could be achieved.

As a scholar, Lazear has co-authored or co-edited 10 books and published more than a hundred papers on economic theory and its applications.

Previously, he was a professor of economics at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business and has served as a visiting professor at a number of universities around the world.

Lazear received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UCLA and his doctorate in economics from Harvard University.