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About the Author(s)

Ufuk Akcigit

Ufuk Akcigit is an associate professor of economics with tenure at the University of Chicago and a research associate at the NBER, where he is affiliated with the Productivity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship program. He also is affiliated with the Centre for Economic Policy Research.

Akcigit's research focuses on economic growth, productivity, firm dynamics, and the economics of innovation. His work aims to uncover the sources of technological progress and innovation that serve as engines of long-run economic growth. He is also interested in the role of public policy in growth, with a focus on environmental regulations, public research and funding for universities, and industrial policies such as R&D tax credits and corporate taxation.

Some of his current papers explore the impact of trade and foreign competition on innovation, the role of political connections in reducing innovation, and the social origins and family backgrounds of inventors.
His research has been published in leading economics journals and has been supported by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the National Science Foundation. He is the recipient of a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation.

Akcigit holds a BA in economics from Koç University in Istanbul and a PhD in economics from MIT. Prior to joining the University of Chicago in 2015, he was an assistant professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Stefanie Stantcheva

Stefanie Stantcheva is a professor of economics at Harvard University and a research associate at the NBER, where she is affiliated with the Public Economics and Political Economy programs. She is a research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research.

Stantcheva's research focuses on the optimal design of tax systems and public policies, taking into account labor market features, complex social preferences, and long-term effects such as human capital acquisition and innovation by individuals and firms. Part of her work is centered around the study of empirical effects of taxation of individuals and firms, on inequality, top incomes, migration, human capital, and innovation.

In recent work, she is exploring the interplay between taxation and innovation using historical as well as modern-day data and the optimal design of R&D policies. She is also studying how people form social preferences regarding redistribution, using large-scale online survey and experiment tools.
Stantcheva is the recipient of a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation and is a Sloan Research Fellow.

She holds a BA in economics from the University of Cambridge, a Master’s degree in economics and finance from Ecole Polytechnique, a Master's in economics from the Paris School of Economics, and a PhD in economics from MIT. She was a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows from 2014–16, before joining the Harvard faculty in 2016.

Endnotes

1. 1.U. Akcigit, J. Grigsby, and T. Nicholas, "The Rise of American Ingenuity: Innovation and Inventors of the Golden Age," NBER Working Paper No. 23047, January 2017.   Go to ⤴︎
2. P. Aghion, U. Akcigit, A. Bergeaud, R. Blundell, and D. Hémous, "Innovation and Top Income Inequality," NBER Working Paper 21247, June 2015, and forthcoming in The Review of Economic Studies.   Go to ⤴︎
3. P. Aghion, U. Akcigit, A. Deaton, and A. Roulet, "Creative Destruction and Subjective Well-Being," NBER Working Paper 21069, April 2015, and the American Economic Review, 106(12), 2016, pp. 3869–97.   Go to ⤴︎
4. E. Saez, "Using Elasticities To Drive Optimal Income Tax Rates," NBER Working Paper 7628, March 2000, and The Review of Economic Studies, 68(1), 2001, pp. 205–29.   Go to ⤴︎
5. E. Saez and S. Stantcheva, "A Simpler Theory of Optimal Capital Taxation," NBER Working Paper 22664, September 2016, and the Journal of Public Economics, 162, 2018, pp. 120–42.   Go to ⤴︎
6. U. Akcigit, S. Caicedo, E. Miguelez, S. Stantcheva, and V. Sterzi , "Dancing with the Stars: Innovation through Interactions," NBER Working Paper 24466, March 2018.   Go to ⤴︎
7. The authors constructed the corporate tax database; the personal income tax database was constructed by Jon Bakija. [J. Bakija, "Documentation for a Comprehensive Historical U.S. Federal and State Income Tax Calculator Program," Williams College Working Paper, 2008.]   Go to ⤴︎
8. U. Akcigit, J. Grigsby, T. Nicholas, and S. Stantcheva, "Taxation and Innovation in the 20th Century," NBER Working Paper 24982, September 2018.   Go to ⤴︎
9. U. Akcigit, S. Baslandze, and S. Stantcheva,"Taxation and the International Migration of Inventors," NBER Working Paper 21024, March 2015, and the American Economic Review, 106(10), 2016, pp. 2930–81.   Go to ⤴︎
10. U. Akcigit, D. Hanley, and S. Stantcheva, "Optimal Taxation and R&D Policies," NBER Working Paper 22908, December 2016.   Go to ⤴︎
11. A. Pavan, I. Segal, and J. Toikka, "Dynamic Mechanism Design: A Myersonian Approach," Econometrica, 82(2), 2014, pp. 601–53; S. Stantcheva, "Optimal Taxation and Human Capital Policies over the Life Cycle," NBER Working Paper 21207, May 2015, and the Journal of Political Economy, 125(6), 2017, pp. 1931–90; S. Stantcheva, "Learning and (or) Doing: Human Capital Investments and Optimal Taxation," NBER Working Paper 21381, July 2015; S. Stantcheva, "Optimal Income, Education, and Bequest Taxes in an Intergenerational Model," NBER Working Paper 21177, May 2015. Go to ⤴︎

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