Richard Sander

Rick Sander is an economist and law professor at UCLA; he uses empiricism to evaluate laws, policies, and the civil justice system. He is best known for his work on affirmative action -- assessing the counterproductive effects of large racial preferences, arguing for better methods of socioeconomic outreach, and measuring the effects of court rulings. Sander also coauthored Moving Toward Integration (coauthored with Yana Kucheva and Jonathan Zasloff and published by Harvard University Press) which attempts to explain the complex evolution of housing segregation, and argues that housing desegregation is not only attainable, but an efficient and effective way of addressing racial inequality more broadly. Sander helped create a non-profit to work with cities directly on desegregation strategies. He is also very involved with efforts to reform civil justice systems, and the use of data and experiments to improve the efficiency and fairness of our courts.