Luigi Zingales

Who is Luigi Zingales?

Luigi G. Zingales is a study of "relationship capitalism". In A Capitalism for the People: Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity (2012), Zingales "suggests that channeling populist anger can reinvigorate the power of competition and reverse the movement toward a 'crony system'."

Zingales received a bachelor's degree in economics, from the Bocconi University in Milan. In 1992 he earned a Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the same year he joined the faculty of University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he is the Robert C. McCormack Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance. Zingales also serves as a member of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation.

He was the winner of the 2003 Germán Bernácer Prize to the best European economist under 40 working in macro-finance.

In July 2012, Zingales took part in the 'No-Brainer Economic Platform' project of NPR's program Planet Money. He supported a six-part reform plan that involved eliminating all American income, corporate, and payroll taxes as well as the war on drugs and replacing the system with a broad consumption tax (including taxing formerly illegal substances).