I'm an institutional and development economist focusing on the dynamics of economic transformations, nature-economy relationships, and green transitions.
My background combines academic research with years of experience advising governments, multilateral organizations, and civil society groups on the design of transformative industrial policies to promote human and natural flourishing—a theme I explore in my forthcoming book The Flourishing Economy.
As Deputy Director of Industrial Policy and Trade at the Roosevelt Institute's Climate and Economic Transformation Program, I examine the challenges of green industrial policy in the United States. From 2019-2022 I was Senior Policy Advisor for green economic policy the Sierra Club, where I helped shape dozens of policy proposals, including legislation, aimed at building the US government’s strategic investment and planning capabilities; promoting sustainable trade, manufacturing, and procurement; and expanding economy-wide investments that simultaneously advance environmental, social, and economic goals (i.e. "multi-solve").
I hold a Ph.D. and M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge, a B.A. in Economics and in Philosophy from Indiana University and have taught at the University of Cambridge and at Goldsmiths, University of London. My master’s dissertation examined the global fragmentation of production and the challenges it poses for industrial policy design. My doctoral research examined the alignment of economic and industrial policy with well-being objectives.
My writing has appeared in Foreign Affairs and The American Prospect, and Phenomenal World, and I am coauthor (with Ha-Joon Chang and Antonio Andreoni) of “Production: The Missing Dimension of the Human Capabilities Approach” for the European Journal of Development Research, and “New Global Rules, Policy Space, and Quality of Growth in Africa” in The Quality of Growth in Africa, a volume edited by Ravi Kanbur, Akbar Noman, and Joseph E. Stiglitz.
Recent Publications
Planning to Build Faster: A Solar Case Study (2024) Roosevelt Institute (with Johanna Bozuwa, Dustin Mulvaney, Kristina Karlsson, Adriana DiSilvestro, Sunny Malhotra)
The Political Economy of Steel Decarbonization: Prospects and Challenges of a Green Steel Transition in Dearborn, Michigan (2024) Roosevelt Institute (with Hebah Kassem, Yong Kwon, and Iliana Paul)
Industrial Transformations (2023) Phenomenal World.
Multi-Solving, Trade-Offs, and Conditionalities in Industrial Policy (2023) Roosevelt Institute.
Using Industrial Policy for Productive Transformation: Three Lessons from Development Economics for US Industrial Strategy (2023) Roosevelt Institute.
Problem Analysis for Green Industrial Policy (2023) Springer Nature Switzerland (with Justus Schollmeyer).
Lessons from Abroad: What U.S. Policymakers can Learn from International Examples of Democratic Governance (2023) Roosevelt Institute (with Shahrzad Shams, Johanna Bozuwa, Carla Santos Skandier, and Patrick Bigger).
Using Trade Tools for Industrial Transformation: The Role of Carbon Border Adjustments (2023) Sierra Club (with Yong Kwon and Iliana Paul).
Why “Buy Clean” Policies Should Consider Toxic Pollutants (And Much More) (2022) Sierra Club (with Hebah Kassem)
The Need for Guardrails in US Industrial Policy (2022) Roosevelt Institute (with Lenore Palladino)