Samuelson, Arrow,...

When you have uncles named Kenneth J. Arrow and Paul A. Samuelson, it must be pretty difficult not to go into economics. And so Lawrence H. Summers, a nephew of those two prominent contemporary economists and Nobel laureates, took the easy route.

He must have attacked the field with a vengeance, because at the tender age of 28 he has already knotched tenure at Harvard, a plum position on the staff of President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), and a reputation as one of the rising young stars in the field.

Plunked down sloppily in a chair in his spacious office adjacent to that of former mentor and friend, CEA Chairman Martin S. Feldstein, Summers seems almost out of place--as if he were back in Cambridge leisurely receiving a visitor during office hours. But as the 45-minute interview progresses and the public finance expert is constantly interrupted by a stream of telephone calls or colleagues asking for a quick bit of advice, the outsider is brought back to Summers' real present world of three-page memos, staff meetings, and access to some of the Administration's top policy makers.

"At this point, I'm here as much to learn how the government works [as] to put pet theories into practice," says Summers, who is commonly described as "brilliant" by colleagues both in and out of government. "It's a very big government and it's easy to overstate how much one can put into practice."

Nonetheless, Summers, in his formal capacity as chief domestic aide to Feldstein and in his informal role as confidante to the 42-year-old Harvard professor, is having a lot more say in matters of policy than other people his age. "He couldn't become more senior than he is now" other than by "becoming a member of the Council itself," says one knowledgeable Washington economist.

For his part, Summers acknowledges that he has "sort of" a special relationship with Feldstein. "I work very, very closely with the chairman, and I see him at some length every day," he says. The sorts of policy issues Summers is working on at the Council capital formation, unemployment, or how to stimulate investment--are said to resemble strongly the chairman's major interests.

But this doesn't mean that Summer falls into line perfectly with Feldstein, the man for whom he was a research assistant and co-author of several papers both as a student at Harvard and at MIT, and later as an assistant professor at MIT. "My views are probably more moderate and somewhat less conservative than his, although I'm in support of the general objectives of the Administration," he says, singling out unemployment as one area where more should be done.

Summers resolutely states that he has not yet been too frustrated by the vastness and intractability of the Washington bureaucracy, a stark contrast to the ivory tower existence he led at Harvard and MIT. But one associate said that in general all of Feldstein's new recruits had expected a greater part in the interagency discussion process on various issues. Issues were simply bubbling up in cabinet level meetings without a lot of preliminary staff work, the official said.

It's also been said that because Summers' areas of expertise are so close to Feldstein's he has frequently found himself advising the chairman on issues on which he has already developed well-formed opinions of his own, without adding much new information.

Summers has little to say publicly about his decision to jump ship at MIT last summer and come over to Harvard. He had actually just received tenure from the Institute and was being counted on to fill an important role. "Harvard made me a very attractive offer. There's a lot of appeal to being part of Harvard University," he says, refusing to elaborate further. Right now, Summers adds, he plans to return to Harvard in September.

But until then, does he feel part of a Harvard contingent scheming together on the Council staff?

"I think people at Harvard are more concerned with the Harvard label than people anywhere else," he says, almost scoffing. "I don't think that I feel part of a Harvard 'clique' in Washington and I don't think that others see things that way, I think that a lot of people have been very pleased that Marty Feldstein came down here [and] have therefore been receptive to him and the people he brought down with him."