Jim Leitzel

Co-chair of the Public Policy Department at the University of Chicago

Recipient of the Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Award

Reinventing the future goes hand in handing with radically changing the views we have on contemporary issues. Jim Leitzel’s research focuses on looking at social problems of vice from a strictly economic perspective. His results spark controversy on the reality of vice and bring up the question: is regulating it the correct way to reduce consumption? The answer is one only he can give you in TEDxUChicago.

Jim Leitzel is Senior Lecturer and Director of Public Policy Studies in the College at the University of Chicago, where he teaches economics, public policy, and social science. Jim previously has taught at Vanderbilt University, Duke University, the New Economic School in Moscow, and the International School of Economics in Tbilisi. Jim’s book on public policies concerning alcohol, drugs, prostitution, and other vices, Regulating Vice: Misguided Prohibitions and Realistic Controls, was published in 2008 by Cambridge University Press. Jim’s previous books include The Political Economy of Rule Evasion and Policy Reform, and Russian Economic Reform. Jim is a recipient of the Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at the University of Chicago. Jim has a BS in mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and an MA and PhD in economics from Duke University.