Robert E. Litan is a senior fellow in the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution. Litan pursues a wide-ranging research agenda, which includes topics in regulation, financial institutions, telecommunications and general economic policy. He is also the vice-president for research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, where he oversees a multi-million dollar budget for academic research relating to entrepreneurship.

During his career, Litan has authored or co-authored more than 20 books, edited another 14, and authored or co-authored more than 200 articles in journals, magazines and newspapers on a broad range of public policy issues. His newest books are Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, Economic Growth and Prosperity (with William Baumol and Carl Schramm, Yale University Press, 2007) and Competitive Equity: Developing a Lower Cost Alternative for Mutual Funds (with Peter J. Wallison, AEI Press, 2007). Litan has consulted for numerous organizations, public and private, and testified as an expert witness in a variety of legal and regulatory proceedings involving domestic (banking, antitrust) and international (primarily trade) issues.

Litan has also served in several capacities in the federal government. During 1995 and 1996, he was Associate Director of the Office of Management and Budget. From 1993 to 1995, he was Deputy Assistant Attorney General, in charge of civil antitrust litigation and regulatory issues, at the Department of Justice. From 1977 to 1979, he was the regulatory and legal staff specialist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. In the early 1990s, Litan was a Member of the Commission on the Causes of the Savings and Loan Crisis.

Litan received his B.S. in Economics (summa cum laude) from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania; his J.D. from Yale Law School; and both his M. Phil. and Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University.