Justin Wolfers


Justin James Michael Wolfers is an Australian economist and public policy scholar. He is professor of economics and public policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, and a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Early life and education

Wolfers attended James Ruse Agricultural High School, in Sydney ; it was in high school that he became interested in economics, noting the influence of his economics teacher.
Wolfers earned a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Sydney.
He moved to the US and earned a Master of Arts in economics and a PhD in economics at Harvard University. He had a Fulbright Scholarship.

Career

Wolfers was associate professor of business and public policy at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In the fall of 2012 Wolfers moved to the University of Michigan as professor of economics and public policy beginning with his partner, fellow economist Betsey Stevenson. he is a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Work

He is noted for his research on happiness and its relation to income.
He is a contributor to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He was an editor of the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity from 2009 through 2015. Wolfers' research has explored macro economics, labor economics, the economics of sports, prediction markets, and the family.
In 2019, he and Stevenson wrote two economics textbooks, Principles of Microeconomics and Principles of Macroeconomics, published by Macmillan Learning. The authors' aim was to reflect a school of thought where "every decision a person makes is an economic decision" and offer examples students could relate to to better reflect the real world.
Wolfers and Stevenson host the Think Like an Economist podcast which intends to introduce the audience to economic ideas and empower them to make better decisions.

Personal life

Wolfers and his partner Betsey Stevenson have two children. They are unmarried for tax reasons and have publicly discussed being in a shared earning/shared parenting relationship.

Reception

  • In 2007, he was named in David Leonhardt's column as one of 13 young economists who were the future of economics.
  • In 2014, he was named by International Monetary Fund as one of the 25 brightest young economists who are expected to shape the world's thinking about the global economy in the future.