About
Kevin Lang is a professor of economics at Boston University, holding the title of Laurence A. Bloom Professor of Economics. His primary fields of expertise are Labor Economics and Econometrics. He is an elected Fellow of the Society of Labor Economists and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Lang is the author of the book Poverty and Discrimination and has contributed over 100 papers and articles on topics within Labor Economics. His academic background includes a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is actively involved in the academic community, contributing to research and scholarship in his areas of specialization.
Research topics
- Political Science
- Sociology
- Computer Science
- Labour economics
- Economics
- Artificial Intelligence
- Gender studies
- Demographic economics
- Algorithm
- Mathematics
- Economic growth
- Engineering
- Public economics
- Criminology
- Business
- Microeconomics
- Law
- Neoclassical economics
- Positive economics
- Statistics
- Discrete mathematics
Selected publications
PLoS Pathogens · 2026-01-07
articleOpen accessKaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is an oncogenic virus that causes Kaposi sarcoma, primary effusion lymphoma and multicentric Castleman disease. A vaccine that prevents KSHV infection or serves in the treatment of KSHV-related diseases represents a critical unmet need, however, the types of immune responses a vaccine should elicit have not been well defined. The gH/gL glycoprotein complex is an important target of KSHV-neutralizing antibodies, but the epitope specificities targeted by these antibodies remain unknown. Here, we isolated 12 gH/gL-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) from KSHV-infected donors and performed structure/function analyses. These mAbs bind recombinant gH/gL with nanomolar affinities and epitope binning analyses revealed that the mAbs bind to 5 epitope clusters on gH/gL. Seven mAbs were able to neutralize KSHV infection of epithelial cell lines. Two potent neutralizing mAbs mapped to the EphA2 binding site as determined by inhibition of the receptor-ligand interaction and negative stain electron microscopy (nsEM) of the mAb/gH/gL complex. The epitopes of other neutralizing mAbs targeting novel sites of vulnerability were determined by a combination of cryogenic electron microscopy and nsEM. Together, these mAbs help to define the relevant epitope targets for KSHV vaccine design, have utility in understanding the role of antibodies in preventing KSHV infection, enable the development of immunotherapy approaches, and provide valuable tools to understand the molecular details of the KSHV entry process.
Review of Economics of the Household · 2025-04-07
articleSenior authorSystematic Discrimination in China: Evidence from Audit Study
AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2025-03-16
datasetSystematic Discrimination in China: Evidence from Audit Study
AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2025-03-16
datasetHow Credible Is the Credibility Revolution?
Journal of Labor Economics · 2024-08-15 · 3 citations
article1st authorCorrespondingEconomists analyzing a well-conducted randomized controlled trial or natural experiment and finding a statistically significant effect conclude that the null of no effect is unlikely to be true. But how frequently is this conclusion warranted? The answer depends on the proportion of tested nulls that are true and the test's power. I model the distribution of t-statistics in leading economics journals. Using my preferred model, 65% of narrowly rejected null hypotheses and 41% of all rejected null hypotheses with |t|<10 are likely to be false rejections. For the null to have only a .05 probability of being true requires a t of 5.48.
Gender Discrimination in Financial Advising: Evidence from the Chinese Market
AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2024-12-27
datasetSenior authorGender Discrimination in Financial Advising: Evidence from the Chinese Market
AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2024-12-27
datasetSenior authorThe Nature of Technological Change 1960-2016
Working paper · 2024-11-25 · 1 citations
reportOpen accessWe present a unified technological explanation of both the movement of workers across jobs using different skills and the changes in skill use within jobs. An envelope-theorem approach allows us to estimate relative skill-productivity growth from worker mobility using OLS while making minimal assumptions on each occupation's production function. Using six decades of data, we conclude that routine-cognitive- and finger-dexterity-skill productivity grew rapidly and abstract- and social-skill productivity grew slowly - a form of "skill bias." These effects, along with our estimated relationships between skill inputs, also explain changes in skill use within occupations.
Do Elite Universities Overpay Their Faculty?
SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01
articleOpen accessSenior authorGender Discrimination in Financial Advising: Evidence from the Chinese Market
AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2024-12-27
datasetSenior author
Recent grants
EHP: Discrimination, Segregation and Wage Differentials in Imperfect Labor Markets
NSF · $277k · 2004–2008
NIH · $161k · 2010
Frequent coauthors
- 70 shared
Huailu Li
- 70 shared
Kaiwen Leong
- 45 shared
William T. Dickens
- 38 shared
Timothy N. Bond
- 30 shared
Costas Cavounidis
- 21 shared
Raghav Malhotra
- 19 shared
Vittoria Dicandia
- 18 shared
Russell Weinstein
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Education
Ph.D.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Awards & honors
- Fellow of the Society of Labor Economists
- Laurence A. Bloom Professorship in Economics
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