Hello!

I am the Nathaniel Ropes Professor of Political Economy at Harvard and founder and director of the Social Economics Lab.

I study the taxation of firms and individuals, as well as how people understand, perceive, and form their attitudes towards public policies. My work has centered around the long-lasting effects of tax policy – on innovation, education, and wealth. Recently, I have studied how R&D policies can be improved to foster innovation, how income and corporate taxes have shaped innovation over the 20th century, and how student loans can be structured to improve access to education. I have also explored people’s attitudes towards taxation, health care, immigration policies, environmental policies, and social mobility using large-scale Social Economics Surveys and Experiments.

I received my Ph.D. in Economics from MIT in 2014 and was a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows 2014-2016 before joining the Harvard Department of Economics in July 2016. I am currently co-editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics.

Full CV

Current Research Statement

To learn more about people’s understanding, perceptions, and views of public policies, visit the Social Economics Lab website.

Here is an older (2021) Research Summary and a short focus piece about my research on “Taxation and Innovation.”

Contact

Address: Department of Economics
Littauer Center 232
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138

Staff Support: Ann M. Richards
Email: ann_richards@harvard.edu
Tel.: 617-496-3960

Website: This website was built using Hugo. Feel free to repurpose its code, which you can find on GitHub.