Basil Halperin is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research focuses on optimal monetary policy: how central banks should behave in order to avoid recessions, unnecessary unemployment, and excess inflation, among other areas. Prior to graduate school, he was an economist at Uber Technologies Inc. and a researcher at AQR Capital Management. Halperin completed his undergraduate studies in economics, mathematics, and Chinese at the University of Chicago.