LUIGI ZINGALES

Finance professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the author of two widely-reviewed books


  • Robert C. McCormack Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business
  • Research interests span from corporate governance to financial development, from political economy to the economic effects of culture
  • Currently a faculty research fellow for the National Bureau of Economic Research  
  • He is the co-host of the podcast Capitalisn't
  • His research has earned him the 2003 Bernácer Prize for the best young European financial economist
  • "Twenty years from now they might have forgotten all the details of my course, but hopefully they will not have forgotten the way of thinking."

Luigi Zingales' research interests span from corporate governance to financial development, from political economy to the economic effects of culture. He co-developed the Financial Trust Index, which is designed to monitor the level of trust that Americans have toward their financial system. In addition to holding his position at Chicago Booth, Zingales is currently a faculty research fellow for the National Bureau of Economic Research, a research fellow for the Center for Economic Policy Research, and a fellow of the European Governance Institute.  In 2014 he was the President of the American Finance Association. He is the co-host of the podcast Capitalisn't.

In July 2015 he became the director of the Stigler Center at the University of Chicago which he is refocusing on promoting and diffusing research on regulatory capture and the various distortions that special interest groups impose on capitalism.

His research has earned him the 2003 Bernácer Prize for the best young European financial economist. His work has been published in the major economic and finance journals, but he has publications also in Science and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

His book, Saving Capitalism from Capitalists, coauthored with Raghuram G. Rajan, has been acclaimed as "one of the most powerful defenses of the free market ever written" by Bruce Bartlett of National Review Online. Of his latest book, “A Capitalism for the People: Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity,” the Financial Times has written “Zingales’ fundamental diagnosis is right."

Born in Italy, Zingales carries with him a civic passion and the belief that economists should not just interpret the world, they should change it for the better. Commenting on his method of teaching on a few very important lessons rather than a myriad of details, Zingales says, "Twenty years from now they might have forgotten all the details of my course, but hopefully they will not have forgotten the way of thinking." Zingales received a bachelor's degree in economics summa cum laude from Universitr Bocconi in Italy in 1987 and a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992. He joined the Chicago Booth faculty in 1992.

In addition to teaching and researching, Zingales enjoys travelling to developing countries.

  • Corporate governance
  • Financial development
  • Political economy 
  • The effect of trust and culture
  • Digital platforms

The Fintech Revolution

Between the 11th and the 14th century three legal innovations changed the economic and financial history of the world: fiat money (11th century in China), double entry accounting (14th century in Italy), and limited liability corporations (11th century Italy). Accounting, banking, financing, and monetary policy as we know them today were all the result of these innovations. Blockchain, virtual currencies, and smart contracts promise to trigger an-equally important revolution in the 21st century. This course will walk the audience through the challenges and the opportunities this technology offers, as well as the regulatory problem it raises. After a brief introduction on the technology itself, the course will focus on

  1. The changes digital currencies will bring to monetary policy and financing;
  2. The changes the blockchain technology will bring to accounting, trading, and investment banking;
  3. The opportunities provided by peer-to-peer lending.

A Capitalism for the People

In A Capitalism for the People, Zingales makes a forceful, philosophical, and at times personal argument that the roots of American capitalism are dying, and that the result is a drift toward the more corrupt systems found throughout Europe and much of the rest of the world. American capitalism, according to Zingales, grew in a unique incubator that provided it with a distinct flavor of competitiveness, a meritocratic nature that fostered trust in markets and a faith in mobility. Lately, however, that trust has been eroded by a betrayal of our pro-business elites, whose lobbying has come to dictate the market rather than be subject to it, and this betrayal has taken place with the complicity of our intellectual class.

Drawing on the historical record of American populism at the turn of the twentieth century, Zingales illustrates how our current circumstances aren't all that different. People in the middle and at the bottom are getting squeezed, while people at the top are only growing richer. The solutions now, as then, are reforms to economic policy that level the playing field. Reforms that may be anti-business (specifically anti-big business), but are squarely pro-market. The question is whether we can once again muster the courage to confront the powers that be.

Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists

Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists is a groundbreaking book that will radically change our understanding of the capitalist system, particularly the role of financial markets. They are the catalyst for inspiring human ingenuity and spreading prosperity. The perception of many, especially in the wake of neverending corporate scandals, is that financial markets are parasitic institutions that feed off the blood, sweat, and tears of the rest of us. The reality is far different.

Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists breaks free of traditional ideological arguments of the right and left and points to a new way of understanding and spreading the extraordinary wealth-generating capabilities of capitalism.