Robert Summers (June 22, 1922 – April 17, 2012)[1][2] was an American economist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he taught from 1960.
A widely cited early work by Summers is on the small-sample statistical properties of alternate regression estimators where analytical measures are unavailable.
He was part of a team at Penn that developed estimates of national income and output across countries which adjust GDP and components for purchasing power parity in the cost of goods and services among different countries,[4][5] later termed the Penn World Table.
For that work, Summers and Alan Heston were recognized as American Economic Association Distinguished Fellows for 1998.
(Their older brother Harold, a lawyer, changed his name to Summers in his youth, and Robert did the same.