Ian Ayres is an American lawyer and economist. He is a professor at the Yale Law School and at the Yale School of Management.
Ayres grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, where he graduated from Pembroke Country Day School in 1977. He played varsity basketball, ran cross country, and served as executive editor of his high school newspaper. Ayres wrote an op-ed piece his senior year called "Black Like Me" (named for the 1961 book of the same name), a controversial piece detailing the consequences of his checking the "African- American" box for race on his PSAT, which led to consideration for academic awards. Ayres graduated summa cum laude in 1981 from Yale University with a dual degree in Russian studies and economics. He then received his J.D. at Yale Law School in 1986, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. He received his Ph.D. in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1988.
Ayres has taught at Northwestern University School of Law, the University of Virginia School of Law, the Moscow State Institute of International Relations Cardoza Law Institute, the University of Iowa College of Law, the University of Illinois College of Law, Stanford Law School, the University of Toronto Law School, and Yale University.