Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Piore is Professor of Economics and Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1984.
He attended Harvard University and received a B.A. in Economics in 1962 and a Ph.D. in 1966. He has been a faculty member at MIT since 1966 and has previously served as a consultant to the US Department of Labor between 1968 and 1970 and labor consultant to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico between 1970 and 1972.
He is best known for developing the concepts of the internal labor market and the dual labor market hypothesis and, more recently, for his work on the transition from mass production to flexible specialization. Piore’s work has focused on the labor market and industrial relations, including low-income labor markets, the impact of technological change on work, migration, labor market segmentation, and the relationship between the labor market, business strategy, and industrial organization.
Piore has served as a member of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics’ Executive Council, the Executive Committee of the American Economic Association (1990–1995), and the International Labor Organization’s Institute for Labor Studies Governing Board (1990–1996). He has worked with many other international organizations, foreign governments, U.S. government agencies, state governments, and nonprofit organizations including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the AFL-CIO, and the Social Science Research Council. He holds a Doctor Honoris Causa from Lille University of Science and Technology.