Jacob Bastian

Jacob Bastian is a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings and assistant professor of economics at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Prior to joining Rutgers, he completed a two-year postdoc at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy and a Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Michigan. Bastian’s research focuses on how public policy can reduce poverty, increase economic opportunity, and affect social attitudes, while also identifying unintended consequences. Much of his research examines how the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit affects the wellbeing of lower-income families. Bastian served as a senior economist in the Council of Economic Advisers in the White House from 2023 to 2024, where he focused on child poverty, childcare, and increasing the supply of affordable housing.