Edward Glaeser

American economist at Harvard — author of Triumph of the City — the most influential urban economist of his generation — whose work on agglomeration, housing supply, and urban productivity has shaped housing policy debates.

Creates the agglomeration economics framework for urban policy — Glaeser's Triumph of the City and his housing research argue that cities are humanity's greatest invention (because dense human capital produces innovation), that restricting housing supply destroys city productivity, and that most urban policies aimed at 'saving' cities actually harm them.