Economist and Professor of Public Policy
UCLA
NBER
rfairlie@ucla.edu
About Me
I am an Economist and Professor of Public Policy at UCLA, and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). My research interests include public policy, entrepreneurship, education, racial and gender inequality, information technology, labor economics, developing countries, and immigration. The overarching goal of my research is to have broad impact by providing rigorous, unbiased and objective evidence on questions that are important for society and often involve highly-charged policy debates. The methodological focus of my work includes implementing randomized control field experiments, employing advanced econometric techniques and identification strategies, and working with and building large administrative datasets. Publications from my research have appeared in leading journals in economics, policy, management, science, and medicine (e.g. American Economic Review, AEJ: Applied, AEJ: Policy, ReSTAT, JPAM, Management Science, and JAMA: Surgery), and I have written two books published with MIT Press. I received a Ph.D. and M.A. from Northwestern University and B.A. with honors from Stanford University. I have held a position at UCSC and visiting positions at Stanford University, Yale University, UC Berkeley, and Australian National University. I have received funding for my research from the National Science Foundation, National Academies, and Russell Sage Foundation as well as numerous government agencies and foundations, and have testified in front of the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Department of Treasury, and the California State Assembly. Recent awards and honors include a joint resolution from the California State Assembly and Senate, Choice Academic Title award, and the Bradford-Osborne research award two years in a row. I am regularly interviewed by the media to comment on economic, education, entrepreneurship, inequality and policy issues.
Recent News
Recent NY Times article on unemployment
My book, “The Promise and Peril of Entrepreneurship” was recently published with MIT Press. 
The White House used my research on Native American business owners in their announcement of initiatives to help Tribal Communities. White House Brief
The Wall Street Journal interviewed me on the changing demographics of entrepreneurs in the U.S. WSJ Link
My paper with Florian Hoffman and Phil Oreopoulos, “A Community College Instructor Like Me: Race and Ethnicity Interactions in the Classroom, (AER 2014) was cited in the latest edition of the Economic Report of the President 2023.
The announcement for my position at UCLA
Additional Links
University of California Sacramento Center (on Faculty Council)
California Policy Lab (Affiliated Expert and MRPI co-PI)
California Center for Population Research (Faculty Affiliate)
Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (Visiting Scholar)
Bradford-Osborne Research Award Best Paper 2021; Best Paper 2022
Joint Resolution from the California State Assembly and Senate