Lance Lochner is currently Distinguished Professor of Economics at Purdue University.  He also serves as Co-coordinator of the Markets Network of the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Global Working Group and maintains research affiliations with the National Bureau of Economic Research in the U.S., the Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis in Italy, and CESifo in Germany. He is a Fellow of the Society of Labor Economists and of the International Association for Applied Econometrics.  He recently served as an editor at the Journal of Political Economy.  He received his PhD in economics from the University of Chicago in 1998.

Professor Lochner’s research is largely devoted to the study of human capital formation throughout the lifecycle; although, he has also studied aspects of criminal behavior. His current research examines intergenerational mobility, including the nature of family investments in children and child development; post-secondary financing policies, especially the structure and implications of student loan contracts; and the evolution of skills and skill prices in the economy.