David Autor, the Daniel (1972) and Gail Rubinfeld Professor within the MIT Department of Economics, has been named head of the Department of Economics, effective July 1.
“David is a world-class labor economist,” says Agustín Rayo, the Kenan Sahin Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. “He can be a person of wisdom and insight. I stay up for welcoming him to the college’s leadership team.”
Autor’s scholarship explores the labor-market impacts of technological change and globalization on job polarization, skill demands, earnings levels and inequality, and electoral outcomes. He serves as faculty co-director of the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Center on Inequality and Shaping the Way forward for Work.
“I’ve been at MIT since 1999, and I owe my profession to the Institute, the department, and colleagues who’re as kind as they’re achieved,” Autor says. “Moving into this role is a likelihood to contribute to a spot that has shaped me at every stage.”
Autor succeeds Jon Gruber, the Ford Professor of Economics, who has served as department head since July 2023.
Autor says he “goals to construct on the stellar standard set by its faculty and students while navigating budget tightening and a shifting political landscape.”
“Just as vital, I would like to guide the department toward the opportunities that advancing AI is opening in how we teach and what we research,” he adds.
Autor serves as co-director of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Labor Studies Program. He earned a BA in psychology from Tufts University in 1989 and a PhD in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in 1999.
Autor has received quite a few awards for each his scholarship — the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, the Sherwin Rosen Prize for outstanding contributions to the sector of Labor Economics, the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship in 2019, the Society for Progress Medal in 2021 — and for his teaching, including the MIT MacVicar Faculty Fellowship, the James A. and Ruth Levitan Award for excellence in teaching, the Undergraduate Economic Association Teaching Award, and the Faculty Appreciation Award from the MIT Technology and Policy Program.
In 2020, Autor received the Heinz twenty fifth Special Recognition Award from the Heinz Family Foundation for his work “transforming our understanding of how globalization and technological change are impacting jobs and earning prospects for American employees.”
In 2023, Autor was one in all two researchers across all scientific fields who was named a NOMIS Distinguished Scientist.
In 2024, Autor was one in all five senior scholars chosen by the Schmidt Sciences Foundation as an AI2050 Senior Fellow.