Berkman Professor of Economics Andreu Mas-Colell describes Green as "soft-spoken," but warns that the economist should not be underestimated. "I think people will discover that he's quite forceful once he's made up his mind about something," Mas-Colell says.
Co-Workers say Green is an understanding and humane person.
The new provost is also an accomplished scholar and teacher. Green says he "didn't sleep much in January," while he was deciding whether to give up those pursuits for the administrative post.
As a scholar, he has published 87 research papers and articles in the past 22 years. Green was granted tenure in 1978, at age 32. He won a Guggenheim fellowship in 1987.
Green's research has focused on a variety of economic topics, both theoretical and applied. Green's recent work has been on tax enforcement and on aspects of behavior in risky situations, Mass-Colell says.
Some of Green's research has been in the economics of environmental and health care management, two areas in which the provost will coordinate interdisciplinary programs.
As a teacher, Green is "innovative...almost daring, by the standards of graduate teaching," according to Marglin. For example, Green used the play Other People's Money as a model for one graduate economics course.
Green won the Galbraith prize for teaching in economics in 1980 and continues to handle a heavy teaching load. This semester, he is teaching a graduate course on economic theory and another on "Uncertainty and Information."
He also helps teach a year-long seminar on public and organizational decision-making with professors from the Business School and Kennedy School of Government.
He is not teaching any undergraduate courses this semester but was a resident tutor in Currier House between 1974 and 1976 and taught a first-year seminar last year.
He is a member of the board of directors of Harvard-Radcliffe Hillel.
Green lives in Lincoln, Mass. with his wife, lawyer Pamela S. Green. They have no children.
Their home in Lincoln was designed by Green, and Pamela Green said that the couple enjoys walking the trials behind the house.
He is an avid golfer, who claims to be an expert on the rules of golf, and has a handicap of 8.