Researching Robert Summers

Summers received his Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Summers was part of a team at Penn that developed estimates of national income and output across countries which adjust GDP and components for purchasing power parity in the cost of goods and services among different countries, later termed the Penn World Table. This yielded large, systematic differences from the common method of using only international exchange rates to convert national products to a common currency. For that work, Summers and Alan Heston were recognized as American Economic Association Distinguished Fellows for 1998.

Prior to joining the Penn faculty, Summers was on the faculty at Yale University.

Summers was married to Anita Summers. They are the parents of Lawrence Summers. His brother is Paul Samuelson. (Their deceased older brother Harold, a lawyer, changed his name to Summers in his youth, and Robert did the same.) All three of these people were also noted economists, as is his wife's brother Kenneth Arrow.

Summers' studio website, states that Summers has had "no formal art training, save a short course in mixing colors at age 15. He began to explore art as a profession in 1964. His paintings include works in various mediums including; egg and acrylic tempera, oil, dry-brush watercolor, pastel, and pencil. His sculptures have included wax and clay, and currently divides his time between painting and sculpting. He describes his flat work as "painterly

Summers resides in his boyhood home of Glen Rose, Texas with his wife Boo, two of their three sons work with him. Among his associations, Robert serves as Associate Director of the Creation Evidence Museum and has traveled to Turkey and New Guinea on archaeological expeditions in that capacity. Summers also plays bagpipes, practices falconry, sings Contemporary Christian music, and has played lead roles in several professional productions. Much of his Western art demonstrates his love of wildlife and the cowboy spirit of the small Texas town.