[3] As chairman, he was the chief economic advisor to President George W. Bush,[4] holding a cabinet-level post as part of the White House team that led the response to the 2007–2008 financial crisis.

[6] In addition to personnel economics, Lazear was a labor economist known for his work on the educational production function, and the importance of culture and language in explaining the rise of multiculturalism.

His father was a shipyard worker during World War II, and had also been a janitor at a hospital, while his mother was a salesperson at a jewelry shop.

During his time at the University of Chicago, he collaborated with Gary Becker in applying economic tools to alternate domains.

[16] Since leaving his post as chairman of the Bush Council of Economic Advisors, Lazear made regular appearances on CNBC and Fox Business News.

[18][11][19] His 1995 book, Personnel Economics, was a seminal work that in addition to introducing the topic, encouraged a wave of subsequent research into labor and management relations.

In an article for National Review's "Capital Matters" two months prior to his death, he goes on to quote President Kennedy to state, "a rising tide lifts all boats," implying that general economic growth benefits all population.

[27] His study also found interesting findings including the fact that when a country changes its name to drop terms like "democratic", "people's", or "socialist", there is a corresponding 18% increase in incomes of the poor.

[10] Prior to serving as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, Lazear was a member of Bush's President's Advisory Panel for Federal Tax Reform, established in 2005.

[30] In a paper in 2001, in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Lazear introduced the idea of an education production function in a classroom.

In a paper in the Quarterly Journal of Economics in 2006, he compares this to deterrents that deter drivers from speeding, and emphasizes the costs of learning and of monitoring.

[31][32] Lazear also attempted to study the rise of multiculturalism and linked it to the importance of the linkages between culture and language to the overall population.

In a paper in the Journal of Political Economy, he considers culture and language as means to facilitate trade between people and goes on to state that minority populations have incentives to be better assimilated to the larger society and learn the majority language and cultural elements so as to have a larger pool of potential trading partners.

He goes on to say that in a pluralistic society, governmental actions that encourage diverse cultural-immigration over concentrated immigration can increase societal welfare.

[9][33] Attempting to identify attributes that enable entrepreneurship, Lazear drew a correlation between successful entrepreneurs and skill acquisition.

With data from Stanford alumni, he draws a correlation between students who have had a diverse work and educational backgrounds being more likely to be successful entrepreneurs than those who have focused on one role or on one subject.