Biography
Benjamin A. Olken is the TEPCO Professor of Economics at MIT. His research focuses on development economics, with a particular interest in improving the performance of the public sector in developing countries, including social protection programs, taxation, and quality of governance. He also works on environmental challenges in developing countries, including the economic impacts of climate change and the drivers of tropical deforestation.
He is a faculty Director of J-PAL, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT, Co-Scientific Director of J-PAL's Southeast Asia office, and Co-Chair of the J-PAL's Social Protection Initiative. He is co-Director of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Development Economics Program.
Olken received his BA summa cum laude as a double-major in Mathematics and Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale University in 1997, and his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 2004. Prior to joining MIT, he was a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. In 1997-1998 he was a Henry Luce Scholar, living in Jakarta, Indonesia.