Richard B. Freeman is Ascherman Chair in Economics at Harvard University and Co-Director of the Labor and Work Life Forum at the Harvard Law School. He is also Director of the Labor Studies Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research and Senior Research Fellow in Labour Markets at the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics.

His research interests include the job market for scientists and engineers; the growth and decline of unions; the effects of immigration and trade on inequality; restructuring European welfare states; international labor standards; Chinese labor markets; transitional economies; youth labor market problems; crime; self-organizing non-unions in the labor market; employee involvement programs; income distribution and equity in the marketplace; and the effects of the internet on labor markets, social behavior and the economy.

He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in April 2006.

In November 2007 he was awarded the IZA Prize in Labor Economics (see Tribute to Richard Freeman video).