Paul Glewwe

Department of Applied Economics, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, 2025

Regents Professor Paul Glewwe, Department of Applied Economics in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, is an internationally recognized researcher whose groundbreaking contributions have sought to increase human capital in developing countries, and in the U.S. He has also conducted research on poverty, inequality, and child nutrition in developing countries. His research on education utilizes randomized controlled trials to collect high-quality data in developing and developed countries to understand the effectiveness of education policies. He also collaborated on the World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) surveys administered in China, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Jamaica, Peru, and Vietnam. His research has served as a catalyst for international development and education policies in developing countries.

Professor Glewwe has been awarded millions of dollars in research grants, including $6.35 million in the last seven years, to study education in developing countries. He has published research on education policies and their relationship to poverty and inequality in Brazil, China, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Madagascar, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Peru, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. Currently, he is expanding his research trajectory to include Bangladesh, Jordan, Pakistan, and Sierra Leone. In sum, Professor Glewwe has published six books, 30 book chapters, and 77 peer reviewed publications in highly ranked economics, development economics, and economics of education journals. According to Google Scholar, his research has been cited more than 29,000 times, with 8,706 citations in the last five years. Professor Glewwe’s overall “h-index” is 71. His highest cited paper in The Lancet, Developmental Potential in the First 5 Years for Children in Developing Countries, has been cited more than 5,000 times. Professionals from The World Bank, USAID, UK’s Department for International Development, and Peru’s Ministry of Education have all commented on how Professor Glewwe’s research has influenced and informed the work of their organizations and countries. 

In addition to his impressive body of scholarship, Professor Glewwe is an excellent teacher and advisor. He has taught nine different masters and doctorate level courses, including two courses he created: Microeconomic Analysis of Economic Development (Apec 8703) and Impact Evaluation (Apec 8223). He advised or co-advised 48 PhD and 8 MS students, and has served on more than 80 PhD committees of students from multiple departments. Currently, he is advising or co-advising 8 PhD students. To illustrate Professor Glewwe’s impact on teaching and advising globally, his former student, Eugenie Maïga, professor at Université Norbert Zongo in Burkina Faso, wrote in Glewwe’s nomination package: 

This was the beginning of a relationship that would evolve from student-teacher to advisor-advisee to cherished friendship. He gave me the utmost support throughout my studies…His natural compassion is evident from his keen dedication to student learning and achievement. There are very few African women economists: to illustrate this claim, I am the first woman to reach the Full Professorship level in francophone Africa. Paul has helped me in many ways including introducing me to people that I can collaborate with for research, securing funding for the summer, applying, and getting a University of Minnesota doctoral dissertation fellowship, and applying for the World Bank Young Professional Program. It is hard to list all the ways Paul helped me and others as students and later as professionals.

Professor Glewwe also has an extensive record of service. This includes serving on advisory boards for the Young Lives Study at Oxford University since 2008, the World Bank’s LSMS-ISA Integrated Surveys of Agriculture (2009-2014), MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (2010-2014), and Oxford University’s RISE (Research to Improve Systems of Education) Programme (2016-2024). He has also served on editorial boards for a number of scholarly journals and he is an associate editor for Economic Development and Cultural Change. 


Biographies are as-of time of award presentation.