Emmanuel Saez

Emmanuel Saez is a Professor of Economics and Director of the Stone Center on Wealth and Income Inequality at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has been a leading figure in the Department of Economics within the College of Letters and Science. His research is foundational in the study of income and wealth inequality, optimal taxation, and empirical public policy.

His academic journey began with a PhD from MIT in 1999. His work, particularly in collaboration with Thomas Piketty and Gabriel Zucman, has revolutionized how economists measure and understand economic inequality. He is best known for constructing long-term top income share series, which reveal the dramatic rise in U.S. inequality since the 1980s. His influential 2019 book, The Triumph of Injustice, co-authored with Gabriel Zucman, presents a compelling critique of the decline in U.S. progressive taxation and proposes bold policy reforms for the 21st century.

Saez's recent research spans a wide range of topics including real-time inequality measurement, wealth tax enforcement, labor market dynamics for older workers, and macroeconomic models of unemployment. His publications, often appearing in top journals like the Quarterly Journal of Economics, American Economic Review, and Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, consistently focus on empirical analysis with direct policy relevance. His work shows a strong trend toward integrating macroeconomic models with distributional data and evaluating the real-world impact of fiscal and social policies.

• John Bates Clark Medal, American Economic Association, 2009
• MacArthur 'Genius' Fellowship, 2010
• Honorary degree from Harvard University, 2019

Saez is deeply involved in mentoring and advising, though specific student names are not listed in the provided texts. He has been instrumental in major data initiatives such as the World Inequality Database (WID.world) and Real-Time Inequality, which provide open-access, high-quality data on economic distribution. He has also secured significant research funding from foundations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. He leads the Stone Center on Wealth and Income Inequality, fostering interdisciplinary research on economic disparity.