C O LU MBI A U N IV ERS IT Y

IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK

CENTE R ON CA P ITA LISM A ND SOCIE TY

Vice-President Margaret Edsall

Associate Vice President for Academic Planning
208 Low Library
me2@columbia.edu
28 June 2015
Dear Ms. Edsall,
It was nice to see you again last Tuesday. I am glad that my visit with you and VicePresident David Madigan to discuss appointing Philip Howard as Adjunct Senior Research
Scholar went so well.
I understand I am to send you a paragraph laying out the importance of this appointment
to the Center on Capitalism and Society, of which I am the director, and you will then write
Provost John Coatsworth for approval of the appointment. Here is the paragraph I have
drafted.
The Center for Capitalism and Society brings together leading scholars in economics,
philosophy and law to study modern capitalist economies the varying rise and fall of
their dynamism, their speculative swings and the deficiency of their inclusion. We seek to
identify the changes in institutions and social values that lie behind these developments.
Several of our members are super-starts in the academic firmament. The addition of the
outstanding legal theorist and intellectual Philip Howard to the Center will enhance our
ability to address these issues in several important ways. First, a great many economic and
social challenges are inextricably connected to societys legal structures and Philip Howard
is one of America's leading thinkers on how legal structures affect human behavior.
Through four books and in essays written for Brookings, Cato and other research
institutions, Howard has succeeded in melding legal, economic and social thinking into a
coherent narrative about structures that can nurture individual initiative. His
interdisciplinary approach, focusing on the conditions for human accomplishment, has
attracted broad support across many disciplines, including economists, health care
professionals, public administrators, educators and political leaders. Second, Philip
Howard's stature will help attract attention to the important work of the Center. His
unusual ability to synthesize complex problems into human terms attracts media as well
as political leaders. Howard periodically co-hosts public forums both in leading academic
institutions and think tanks as well as the Common Good Institute, which he chairs. Last
year, the Center and Common Good successfully collaborated on a forum on The Future of
the Individual, and we have another planned for November of this year.

1126 International Affairs Building

Mail Code 3334

420 West 118th Street

New York, NY 10027

212.851.0260

In my view, Philip Howard offers a unique perspective and prominence, and, I believe, will
be not only an important asset to the Center but, potentially, to Columbia University.
Please let me know if there is something missing here or if you need other information.
With best wishes,
Ned

Edmund Phelps
Director, Center on Capitalism and Society
Esp2@columbia.edu
212-854-2060
www.capitalism.columbia.edu