Paul N. Courant (born January 5, 1948) is an American economist who is an expert in

public goods In economics, a public good (also referred to as a social good or collective good)Oakland, W. H. (1987). Theory of public goods. In Handbook of public economics (Vol. 2, pp. 485–535). Elsevier. is a goods, commodity, product or service that ...

. His recent research focuses on the economics of universities, the economics of libraries and archives, and the impact of new information technologies on the scholarly publishing system.

Education

Courant received his BA in history from

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the e ...

in 1968; an MA in economics from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 1973; and a PhD in economics from

in 1974.

Career

Before attending graduate school, Courant served as a research assistant at the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as Brookings, is an American think tank that conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics (and tax policy), metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, global econo ...

. After receiving his PhD, he joined the faculty at the University of Michigan, where he has remained. In 1979 and 1980 he was a Senior Staff Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers. From 2002 to 2005 he served as Provost and Executive Vice-president for Academic Affairs, the chief academic officer and the chief budget officer of the university. While Provost, he negotiated a contract with

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

to allow them to digitize the entire contents of Michigan's library for their

Google Books Library Project Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

now known as

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

. He has also served as the Associate Provost for Academic and Budgetary Affairs, Chair of the Department of Economics and Director of the Institute of Public Policy Studies (which is now the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy). He served as the University Librarian and Dean of Libraries from 2007 to 2013. Courant is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Harold T. Shapiro Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, Professor of Economics, Professor of Information, and Faculty Associate in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Courant has authored half a dozen books and over seventy papers covering a broad range of topics in economics and public policy, including tax policy, local economic development, gender differences in pay, housing, radon and public health, relationships between economic growth and environmental policy, and university budgeting systems.

Boards

*ARTstor Board of Trustees *Center for Research Libraries Board of Directors *Council on Library and Information Resources Board of Directors *Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Board of Directors

Comments on the Google Library Project

In November 2007, Courant started a blog in which he defended the University of Michigan's participation in the Google Books Library Project. His remarks joined an ongoing debate about the project, specifically with regard to the role of libraries in large scale digitization efforts."Libraries Shun Deals to Place Books on Web" by Katie Hafner
''New York Times'', October 22, 2007
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Selected bibliography

;Book chapters * ;Journal articles *

Notes and references

External links

* * Paul Courant's blog
Au Courant
* Paul Courant'
Curriculum Vitae
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Courant, Paul 21st-century American economists 20th-century American librarians Princeton University alumni 1948 births Living people Swarthmore College alumni Academic librarians University of Michigan faculty Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy faculty 21st-century American librarians