Clair Brown

Clair Brown is a distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where she has served since 1974 as the first woman hired for a tenure-track faculty position in the department since World War II. Her groundbreaking appointment reshaped the department's trajectory toward gender diversity.

Brown earned her mathematics degree from Wellesley College before completing a Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Maryland with a focus on Labor Economics. Her research revolutionized economic thought through the development of Buddhist Economics, which integrates global sustainability, shared prosperity, and holistic well-being into economic frameworks that reject purely self-interested models. She emphasizes interdependence between humans and the environment, challenging traditional GDP-centric metrics by prioritizing collective welfare and ecological health.

Brown's influential book Buddhist Economics: An enlightened approach to the dismal science (Bloomsbury Press) established her as a thought leader advocating for economics to address the climate emergency, racial injustice, and inequality. Her work demonstrates how altruistic and other-regarding behaviors fundamentally reshape economic policy design and historical interpretation.

• Featured in Eminent Economists II: Their Life and Work Philosophies (Cambridge University Press)

As a transformative institutional force, Brown authored a pivotal EEOC memo exposing gender discrimination in hiring that directly led to the recruitment of Laura Tyson and Joan Hannon—creating Berkeley's first cohort of three female economics faculty. She pioneered paid maternity leave policies at Berkeley after becoming one of the first women on campus to receive semester-long paid leave in the 1970s, later collaborating with administrators to normalize parental leave for all faculty. Her advocacy fundamentally altered departmental culture, proving women economists bring essential diversity of thought that enriches the discipline beyond narrow self-interest models.

Brown continues to drive Berkeley's legacy as a leader in female economics faculty representation while challenging the field to solve humanity's most urgent crises through compassionate, systems-oriented economic frameworks.