Ann E. Harrison

Dean and Bank of America Chair | Professor
Business and Public Policy | Economic Analysis and Policy

Renowned economist and dean of the Haas School of Business

About

Ann E. Harrison became the 15th dean of the Haas School of Business on Jan. 1, 2019. A renowned economist, she has dedicated her career to creating inclusive and sustainable policies in development economics, international trade, and global labor markets.

Harrison came to Haas from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where she was a professor of multinational management and business economics and public policy. Before joining Wharton in 2012, she was the director of development policy at the World Bank, where she co-managed a team of 300 researchers and staff.

Harrison has deep Berkeley roots. She earned her bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley with a double major in economics and history. She also served as a professor of Berkeley’s Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics from 2001 to 2011.

Harrison is one of the most highly-cited scholars globally on foreign investment and multinational firms. She is the author of dozens of journal articles and the editor of three books, including Globalization and Poverty and The Factory-Free Economy: Outsourcing, Servitization, and the Future of Industry. In 2017, Harrison and her co-authors were awarded the prestigious Sun Yefang Prize by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The prize, given every two years, is considered one of China’s most prestigious honors in economics.

As director of development policy at the World Bank, Harrison reformed its process for allocating research funds and oversaw the institution’s flagship publications. She convinced the World Bank’s president to release all historical records on project loans, a milestone in increasing transparency.

Harrison has been interviewed about global trade policies and manufacturing by top publications including Bloomberg, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times.

In addition to Berkeley and Wharton, Harrison has held positions at Columbia Business School, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and the University of Paris. She has lectured at most major U.S. universities and in India, China, Latin America, Europe, the Philippines, and North Africa.

Harrison earned her PhD in economics from Princeton University. She also holds a DEUG (diplôme d’études universitaires générales) from the University of Paris. Born in France, she is a dual citizen of the U.S. and France.

Expertise and Research Interests

  • Multinational Firms
  • Foreign Direct Investment
  • International Trade and Global Strategy
  • Emerging Markets
  • India
  • China