Laurence M. Ball (born March 19, 1959) is an American economist, Professor and Chairman of the Economics Department at the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
[1][2][3] Born in Boston, Massachusetts,[3] he attended Groveton High School in Fairfax County, Virginia[citation needed] and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics in 1980 from Amherst College, then a Doctor of Economics degree in 1986 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was the recipient of graduate fellowships from the National Science Foundation (1981–1982, 1983–1985).
[3] He was appointed professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University in 1994 and was department chairman from 2015 to 2019.
[3] He became an associate editor for the magazine Open Economies Review in 2009, has authored 4 books and more than 50 articles and papers on economics.
[6][7][8] His current research is focused on the long term effects of the Great Recession and the case being made for raising central banks inflation targets to four percent.