About Me - Michael Carlos Best

I am an Associate Professor (without tenure) in the Department of Economics at Columbia University. I am also a Faculty Research Fellow in the Public Economics and Development Economics groups at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); a Research Associate in Public Economics and a Research Fellow in Development Economics at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); an Affiliate of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), and the Center for Development Economics and Policy (CDEP) at Columbia; and an International Research Fellow of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), London.

My research interests lie in public and development economics where I study the design and implementation of public policy. I focus in particular on low- and middle-income countries, and on tax and procurement policy.

Before joining Columbia I was a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. I earned my Ph.D. from the London School of Economics.