The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has named Professor Lawrence Harris as chief economist and head of the commission’s Office of Economic Analysis.

As chief economist, Dr. Harris will advise the commission on critical economic issues, recommend and initiate major policy projects designed to make the commission’s regulations more efficient and effective, and oversee staff analysis of the economic impact of SEC regulatory actions, policies and proposals.

Harris, 45, will join the commission July 1, on a two-year leave of absence from the University of Southern California, where he holds the Fred V. Keenan Chair in Finance at the Marshall School of Business. He will succeed acting chief economist William Atkinson, who is retiring in July after 30 years with the commission.

Harris received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago in 1982, where he examined price-volume relations in securities markets. He is an expert in the economics of securities market microstructure and the uses of transactions data in financial research. He has also written extensively about exchange trading rules, volatility and stock index markets.