Search Fellows | Russell Sage Foundation

George A. Akerlof

RSF Nobelists

George Akerlof is the Daniel E. Koshland, Sr. Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and University Professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. He was the Nobel Laureate in Economics in 2001 and the co-author of several books, including Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism (2009) and Identity Economics: How Our Identities Shape Our Work, Wages, and Well-Being (2010).

Douglas Almond

Columbia University

Visiting Scholar

2007 to 2008

Douglas Almond, Assistant Professor of Economics at Columbia University, will investigate the effect of early health on adult health and socioeconomic outcomes among African Americans. He will draw on his previous research on the long-term and intergenerational effects of two 1960s public policy health initiatives – the food stamps program and hospital desegregation – to determine whether and how such programs benefit people in the long run.

Douglas Almond

Columbia University

Visiting Scholar

2020 to 2021

Almond will use data from the Census Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) file to examine how childbirth affects women’s employment and earnings. Gender gaps in the labor market increasingly result from the different ways parenthood affects women’s and men’s careers.

Elizabeth Ananat

Barnard College

Visiting Scholar

2022 to 2023

Ananat will analyze survey data from over 1,000 low-wage service workers with young children to understand their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. She will explore job and income changes, material hardships, and support from established and pandemic-specific government programs.

Robert Barsky

University of Michigan

Visiting Scholar

2005 to 2006

Robert Barsky, Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan, will examine the meaning and role of consumer confidence measures to determine whether sudden, unexplained shifts in consumer sentiment influence spending patterns and business cycles. He will look at why certain demographic groups display lower confidence in the future of the economy than others and will develop new survey questions to better gauge consumer attitudes.

Saurabh Bhargava

Carnegie Mellon University

Visiting Scholar

2016 to 2017

Bhargava will study the factors which shape individual behavior in two areas of policy importance—the choice of health insurance and job searches among the unemployed. He will explore how consumers navigate increasingly complex health plan options and how policymakers can encourage financially sensible plan choices. He will also investigate the extent to which job seekers deviate from optimal job search behavior and how unemployment policies can be redesigned to better reflect the psychological impacts of job loss.

Olivier Blanchard

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Visiting Scholar

2003 to 2004

Olivier J. Blanchard, chairman of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will spend the spring semester at Russell Sage beginning a book on European unemployment. His book will consider micro- and macro- trends, as well as the wide differences in unemployment figures among European countries.

Francine D. Blau

Cornell University

Visiting Scholar

1999 to 2000

Francine D. Blau, professor of industrial and labor relations, and Lawrence M. Kahn, professor of labor economics and collective bargaining, both at Cornell University, will prepare an international study of labor market institutions (such as collective bargaining, unemployment insurance, and family leave) and their impact on labor market outcomes, including unemployment, wage trends, inequality, and women's pay.

Alan S. Blinder

Princeton University

Visiting Scholar

2011 to 2012

Blinder will write a historical analysis of the 2007-08 financial crisis and the Great Recession. He will examine the origins of the crisis, including the slump in the housing market, the resulting freeze in the credit markets, and the contagion that spread to the entire economy. He will analyze how the crisis progressed and the extent of the damage, from historic unemployment levels to cascading bank failures. Blinder will conclude by assessing policy responses to the crisis, such as the fiscal stimulus bill, as well as the crisis’ longer term economic legacy.

John Bound

University of Michigan

Visiting Scholar

2021 to 2022

Bound and Arline Geronimus will examine how stagnating economic prospects among moderate-income households impact increasing inequities in life expectancy. Their research project will test the weathering hypothesis, which indicates that structurally-rooted stress causes wear and tear on cellular integrity and thus accelerates biological aging, hastens the onset of chronic diseases, increases the incidence of disability, and causes excess death in affected individuals and communities.

John Bound

University of Michigan

Visiting Scholar

1995 to 1996

John Bound, associate professor of economics, and associate research scientist at The Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, used census data to explore shifts in the demand for labor in various metropolitan regions and their effect on the earnings of various demographic groups, especially less-educated males. He found considerable geographic variation in labor demand and a general reluctance of the less educated to follow these shifts, which contributed to the deterioration of their earnings.

Leah Brooks

University of Toronto

Visiting Scholar

2009 to 2010

Leah Brooks, assistant professor of economics at the University of Toronto, will collaborate with Justin Phillips, assistant professor of political science at Columbia University, in a working group examining how neighborhood conditions and community organizations in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Detroit are related to the political processes behind city redistributive policies.

Maria Cancian

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Visiting Scholar

2001 to 2002

Maria Cancian, associate professor of economics at the Institute for Research on Poverty at University of Wisconsin, will explore the implications of Wisconsin's radical new approach to public assistance for low-income families: the Wisconsin Works (W-2). In addition to emphasizing work as a prerequisite for cash assistance, W-2 is unique in that it allows for a 100% "pass-through": participating parents may keep all child support paid on behalf of their children rather than return full or partial payment to the state.

Alessandra Casella

Columbia University

Visiting Scholar

1997 to 1998

Alessandra Casella, associate professor of economics at Columbia University, completed an analysis of the integration of small, self-governed agencies within large-scale, anonymous economic markets. Her work illustrated the importance of personal ties in the economy, focusing on two groups in the realms of public finance and international trade: local government agencies formed to provide specific public goods, and ethnic-based private trading companies.

Charles Clotfelter

Duke University

Visiting Scholar

2005 to 2006

Charles Clotfelter, Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of Public Policy Studies and Professor of Economics, and Law at Duke University, will measure and analyze economic segregation in U.S. schools and compare it to patterns of racial segregation. In addition, he will examine student placement policies in North Carolina in an effort to account for the recent increase in racial segregation in the state’s schools.

Miles Corak

University of Ottawa

Visiting Scholar

2013 to 2014

Corak along with Bruce Bradbury, Jane Waldfogel, and Elizabeth Washbrook will build upon a current RSF-funded comparative project on educational inequality. This working group will write a book on child development and public policies in four countries. They will analyze differences in school achievement among children of different socioeconomic status in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Sean Corcoran

California State University

Visiting Scholar

2005 to 2006

Sean Corcoran, Assistant Professor of Economics at California State University-Sacramento, Thomas Romer, Professor of Politics and Public Affairs at Princeton University, and Howard Rosenthal, Professor of Politics at New York University, form a working group that will construct a comprehensive time-series database with demographic, political, and financial information on American school districts. While at the Foundation, they will use information from this database to begin writing a book about the political economy of financing U.S.

Dora L. Costa

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Visiting Scholar

1999 to 2000

Dora L. Costa, associate professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will document the long run evolution of American living standards from the mid-19th century to the present. Conventional thinking equates money income with well-being and economic growth with gains in living standards. Costa will adopt a more complete definition of living standards, measuring consumption, hours worked, and health.

Sheldon Danziger

University of Michigan

Visiting Scholar

2002 to 2003

Sheldon Danziger, the Henry J. Meyer Collegiate Professor of Social Work and Public Policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan, and Sandra Danziger, associate professor of social work at the University of Michigan, will assess how the 1996 welfare reform has affected the work and well-being of single mothers and their families in a book entitled After Welfare: Toward a Work-Based Safety Net.

Gregory DeFreitas

Hofstra University

Visiting Scholar

1995 to 1996

Gregory DeFreitas, associate professor of economics at Hofstra University, studied the socioeconomic impact on urban youth of recent immigration. He analyzed data from a survey that examines the experiences and attitudes of New York City employers concerning their employment of youth, immigrants, and others. This analysis, along with a study of the evolution of urban youth employment since the mid-nineteenth century, will form the basis of a book. Working Papers: