Expert Type: Guest Author

Laurence Ales is a professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. He received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Minnesota in 2008 and a B.S. in physics from the University of Rome Tor Vergata.

Andrew Barber is a senior economist at Valdos Consulting, specializing in economic modeling, labor market analysis, and the impact of emerging technologies, such as generative AI. He holds a B.S. in civil and environmental engineering from Cornell University, an M.S. in economics from California State University-Sacramento, and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Dustin Ferrone is a senior engineer at Valdos Consulting, providing expertise in complex systems analysis, labor and service supply chains, and scalable analytical software solutions. He holds a B.S. in electro-mechanical engineering technologies from Penn State Altoona, and an M.S. in systems engineering from Penn State University.

Christophe Combemale is an assistant research professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Engineering and Public Policy. He holds a B.S. in ethics, history and public policy, an M.S. in public policy and management, and a Ph.D. in engineering and public policy—all from Carnegie Mellon University.

Patrick Sullivan is a postdoctoral scholar at APEX and an associated researcher at “The Politics of Inequality” Cluster of Excellence at the University of Konstanz. Sullivan holds a bachelor’s degree in secondary education social studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also majored in history, political science, and economics.

Patrick Driessen is a former government economist and revenue estimator. He holds a Ph.D. in public policy from the University of Michigan.

David Leite is an applied economist focusing on public finance. He recently completed his Ph.D. in economics at the Paris School of Economics and will start a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Bureau of Economic Research in September 2025.

Paul Pierson is the John Gross Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He holds a B.A. in government from Oberlin College, and an M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in political science from Yale University.

Yotam Margalit is the Brian Mulroney Chair in Government at the School of Political Science and International Affairs at Tel Aviv University and a professor in the Department of Political Economy at King’s College London. Margalit holds a B.A. in economics and history from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Jamila Michener is an associate professor of government at Cornell University. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and her undergraduate degree from Princeton University.