Jessica H. Brown is an assistant professor of economics in the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. She is a labor economist who focuses on the economics of the child care market. She has studied how the market responds to changes in the economic and policy environment, including how child care employment, quality, and prices respond to changes in macroeconomic conditions, the minimum wage, and immigration enforcement. Brown’s research has been published in the Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Public Economics, and Journal of Health Economics and featured in the popular press in outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and NPR. Brown holds a B.S. in mathematics and economics from the University of Notre Dame and a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University.
Expert Type: Grantee
Jhacova Williams
Jhacova Williams is an assistant professor in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at American University and previously worked at Xavier University of Louisiana, Clemson University, the Economic Policy Institute, and RAND Corporation before joining the faculty at American University. She is an applied microeconomist focusing primarily on economic history and cultural economics. Her previous work has examined Southern culture and the extent to which historical events have impacted the political behavior and economic outcomes of Southern Black Americans. Recent examples include historical lynchings and the political participation of Black Americans, and Confederate symbols and Black-White labor market differentials. She has also done a series of projects investigating the role of structural racism in shaping racial economic disparities in labor markets. Williams received a B.S. in mathematics from Xavier University of Louisiana, a M.S. in applied mathematics from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a Ph.D. in economics from Louisiana State University.
Jordan Richmond
Jordan Richmond is an assistant professor of finance at the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. His research interests lie in public economics, labor economics, and corporate finance. His existing work studies the impacts of corporate tax policies on investment and financing choices and evasion and avoidance behavior. In ongoing work, Richmond develops dynamic models of corporate behavior and explores the distributional consequences of the private equity industry for workers across the income distribution. Prior to joining the University of Maryland, he completed an economics Ph.D. at Princeton University, was a predoctoral fellow at Opportunity Insights, and completed a B.A. in economics and physics at Bowdoin College.
Kassandra Hernandez
Kassandra Hernández is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at the University of California, Berkeley. Trained in labor economics and public finance, she studies how public policy exacerbates or mitigates inequality, particularly for low-wage workers and immigrants. Her work examines worker-led enforcement mechanisms—specifically, labor code violations, lawsuits, and subsequent impacts on workers and firms. Previously, Hernández was the inaugural research analyst at the University of California, Los Angeles’ Latino Policy and Politics Institute, where she led work on economic opportunity, (un)employment, and COVID-19 impacts on the Latino community. Her work has been covered in both English and Spanish media and was presented to members of the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Department of State. Hernández holds an M.P.P. and a B.A. in philosophy with a minor in labor and workplace studies, both from UCLA.
Micah Villarreal
Micah Villarreal is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In her research, she seeks to understand the historical roots of present-day inequality in the United States. Her dissertation exploits a natural experiment in early 1900s Oklahoma to learn about the causes of racial wealth inequality. Previously, Villarreal worked on housing and labor policy research at Abt Associates. She holds a B.A. in international relations and economics from Wellesley College.
Neil Cholli
Neil Cholli is a Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University’s Department of Economics. His primary fields of research are labor and public economics. Cholli’s work leverages applied microeconomic methods guided by theory to understand the mechanisms of social mobility and evaluate policies aimed at promoting it. He received his Ph.D. in economics at the University of Chicago in 2022 as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and an Institute of Education Sciences Pre-Doctoral Fellow. His dissertation has been recognized by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management and the National Tax Association.
Amy Claessens
Amy Claessens is a professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the Carl and Mary Gulbrandsen Distinguished Chair in Early Childhood Education and the associate director of the Center for Research on Early Childhood Education. Her research focuses on improving the well-being of families and young children in a variety of contexts, including child care and the early years of school. Her research has been funded by a wide range of agencies, including the Administration for Children and Families and the Heising-Simons Foundation. Claessens has a Ph.D. in human development and social policy from Northwestern University.
Dmitri Koustas
Dmitri Koustas is an assistant professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. His research spans labor economics, public economics, macroeconomics, and household finance, with a particular focus on the future of work. In particular, his research measuring and understanding participation in the gig economy has helped inform the policy discussion around gig work, future survey design, and tax administration. In addition to academic publications, his research has been featured in the National Academy of Sciences report on “Measuring Alternative Work Arrangements for Research and Policy,” in multiple editions of the White House Council of Economic Advisers’ Economic Report of the President, and in major media outlets. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 2018.
Margarita Tsoutsoura
Margarita Tsoutsoura is an associate professor of finance at Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School. She is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and a research member at the European Corporate Governance Institute. She serves as associate editor of the Journal of Finance, The Review of Economics and Statistics, and the Review of Finance. Tsoutsoura was formerly a tenured associate professor at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University and associate professor at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on corporate finance with an emphasis on privately held firms, corporate governance, and labor and finance. Her work has been published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies. The Fulbright Fellowship, the Jensen Prize, the Wharton School-WRDS Award, and the WFA Trefftzs Award are among Tsoutsoura’s other varied honors and fellowships. Her research has been covered extensively in popular media outlets, including in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Economist, New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, BusinessWeek, the International Herald Tribune, and CNBC. She received her Ph.D. in economics and finance from Columbia University.
Adam Isen
Adam Isen is an associate professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University. Previously, he worked for 10 years at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. His research interests are in labor and public economics. In his work, Isen studies the effect of government policy on households and firms and the causal pathways that give rise to inequality and intergenerational mobility. He received his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and his Ph.D. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.