Advance Awards Education Category Finalist
Described as one of Australia’s most unorthodox and influential academic exports, Professor Justin Wolfers shifts the lens on economic discourse and the stereotype of economics in equal measure. As a contributor to the New York Times and with over 200,000 twitter followers, Justin’s determination to simplify complicated economic ideas crucially counteracts the trend towards echo chambers and fake news. His easy-going nature belies a cutting-edge knowledge of economics and a will to effect institutional reform. His research explores economics and happiness, family life, macroeconomics, and the labour market.
Justin is a prolific author whose contributions include the recent textbook “Principles of Economics,” and his new podcast “Think Like an Economist”. He has been an editor of The Brookings Papers on Economic Activity and an adviser to the Congressional Budget Office. Having graduated with a Bachelor of Economics with Honours from the University of Sydney, and receiving a PhD in economics at Harvard University, Justin is now a Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan, and a visiting Professor at the University of Sydney. He is currently a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and for the Centre of Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, ANU, and a Research Affiliate for the Centre of Economic Policy Research in London. Among his many accolades, Justin was named in David Leonhardt’s New York Times column as one of 13 young economists representing the future of economics (2007) and by the 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 (2014).
