Economist Larry Summers will at Harvard University, the school announced on Feb. 25, 2026, following heightened scrutiny of his ties with the late . Summers will leave at the end of the 2025-26 academic year, with a new title: president emeritus.
It’s a soft landing for his fall from grace.
In November 2025, of Summers, a former U.S. treasury secretary who previously served as Harvard’s president.
The probe looked into whether Summers and other members of Harvard’s faculty and administration had interactions with Epstein that and should be subject to disciplinary action. Summers’ resignation is , a Harvard spokesperson told The Hill.
Despite repeated calls by students for , he held onto his teaching and academic appointments at Harvard until he chose to retire. Students and staff also following his disparaging comments about women in science.
“Free of formal responsibility, as President Emeritus and a retired professor, I look forward in time to engaging in research, analysis, and commentary on a range of global economic issues,” Summers released on Feb. 25.
Not surprised
and a board member of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession – a standing committee of the American Economic Association – I wasn’t surprised by the revelations of Summers’ apparent chumminess with Epstein, shocking as they may appear.
After all, it was Summers’ disparaging remarks about what he said was that in 2006.
And for years, researchers have documented that pervades the field of economics.
The title of president emeritus is honorary. It brings with it symbolic recognition and the . Emeritus status is selective and requires approval at most universities. It’s usually bestowed on retiring professors.
In my view, by conferring this title on Summers, Harvard is signaling that powerful men can outlast gross misconduct with their honorifics intact.
Summers’ ties to Epstein
Summers, until his entanglement in the Epstein scandal came to light, was among the nation’s .
But his history of public controversy stretches back to at least 1991, when a memo he wrote while serving as the World Bank’s chief economist appeared to .
Criticism of Summers surged after the House of Representatives released damning messages between Summers and Epstein as part of a dump of from Epstein’s estate in November 2025.
A series of emails and texts documented how Summers repeatedly sought Epstein’s advice while pursuing an intimate relationship with a woman he – while the economist was married to someone else.
Summers was close enough to Epstein that in 2014, the sex offender named the economist as a backup .
The Department of Justice released a much larger in compliance with a . So far, no major media outlet has reported on any new Summers materials discovered as a result.
Harvard’s slow response
The Summers-Epstein exchanges released in November ignited a and led to the .
Summers went on and stepped down from .
But beyond launching the investigation, Harvard took no decisive action to discipline or sanction Summers. This calculated hesitation, which reflects the institution’s efforts to court funding, power and influence among top donors, appears to have put donor politics above basic accountability.
By contrast, the American Economic Association, the primary professional association for economists, did take swift and harsh action. In an unprecedented move, on Dec. 2, 2025, the AEA announced that it and other activities.
Having lots of company
To be sure, Harvard is not the only prestigious university dealing with the aftermath of the Epstein revelations.
The Epstein documents include evidence that administrators and professors at other prestigious colleges and universities like Duke, Yale, Bard, Princeton and Columbia .
As public funding for higher education has eroded, universities have increasingly turned to and supplement budgets by endowing professorships and research centers. Epstein appears to have taken advantage of this dependence on rich supporters by presenting himself as someone who could deliver both his own money and .
The Epstein files uncovered many email exchanges, meetings and discussions with the sex offender about research and funding opportunities, and they demonstrated how thoroughly .
Disturbingly, Summers was hardly the only scholar to solicit Epstein’s help in pursuing women.
Among others, asked him for the contact information of a “redhead” he had met, and Yale computer scientist David Gelernter told Epstein about a woman he called a “.”
An economics problem
While Summers’ behavior and the reported dynamics may appear shocking, they are all too common in economics. For years, researchers have been documenting the profession.
The data shows that abuse of power is common among male economists.
A 2019 survey by the AEA documented . Almost half of the women surveyed said that they had experienced sexual discrimination, and 43% reported having experienced offensive sexual behavior from another economist – almost always men.
Also, a 2021 study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research documented , with female presenters experiencing more interruptions and encountering more patronizing behavior.
In 2024, according to the National Science Foundation, about in the U.S. were women, than in other social sciences, business, the humanities and scientific disciplines. This ratio has .
After earning doctoral degrees in economics, women face , which represents the highest-paid, most secure and prestigious academic jobs. The higher the rank, the lower the representation of women.
, such as and the . Women are also substantially underrepresented as .
This bias not only hurts women who are economists; it can also hamper policymaking by limiting the range of perspectives that inform economic decisions.
Allowing a soft landing
Allowing Summers to commence a dignified retirement while continuing to hold honorifics risks signaling that there are ultimately few consequences at the very top in higher education.
I believe that if colleges and universities want to prove that they are serious about confronting abuses of power within their ranks, they must show that prestige does not entitle anyone, however accomplished, to a soft landing.
Portions of this article appeared in a related article .
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