Kenneth S. Rogoff

Kenneth S. RogoffPhotograph by Jim HarrisonAs the American under-21 chess champion, Kenneth S. Rogoff decided to "miss most of the last two...

Kenneth S. Rogoff

As the American under-21 chess champion, Kenneth S. Rogoff decided to "miss most of the last two years of high school." He left Rochester, New York, to support himself in Yugoslavia on prize winnings—perhaps an inkling of his international interests. Yale accepted his equivalency diploma; in college he played chess summers only (placing no lower than seventh in three U.S. Championships), indulging instead a new passion, economics, in which he was taught by future Nobel laureate James Tobin. Thereafter, Rogoff dropped out of MIT to play chess until he quit (cold turkey) to earn a Ph.D. in 1980. Professor of economics at Harvard since 1999, he has pursued "problems at the intersection of political economy and economics," a phenomenon he saw firsthand during two years on leave as chief economist and research director of the International Monetary Fund, ending last fall. He has documented the "political budget cycle": governments' willingness to raise taxes, for example, relative to the electoral calendar, and "why voters fall for it." His interpretation of international debt (more symptom than cause of developing countries' weak growth) extends to speculation on "why countries like the U.S. can borrow enough to wrap a rope around their necks several times" while others cannot secure credit. As the new director of Harvard's Center for International Development, he will focus research on "the big problem for the world over the next 100 years": that two billion people are poor although "our world is a cornucopia." On the home front, filmmaker Natasha Rogoff pioneered the Russian Sesame Street, but International Grandmaster Kenneth will teach children Gabriel, seven, and Juliana, five, the basic chess moves.

Most popular

Two Years of Doxxing at Harvard

What happens when students are publicly named and shamed for their views?

A New Narrative of Civil Rights

Political philosopher Brandon Terry’s vision of racial progress

Paolo Pasco and the Art of Making Crosswords

Paolo Pasco and the art of making crosswords

Explore More From Current Issue

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio smiling beside the pink cover of her novel "Catalina" featuring a jeweled star and eye.

Being Undocumented in America

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s writing aims to challenge assumptions. 

Illustration of scientists injecting large syringe with mitochondria into human heart.

Do Mitochondria Hold the Power to Heal?

From Alzheimer’s to cancer, this tiny organelle might expand treatment options. 

Nineteenth-century prison ruins with brick guardhouse surrounded by forest.

This Connecticut Mine Was Once a Prison

The underground Old New-Gate Prison quickly became “a school for crime.”