Deborah J. Lucas

Deborah J. Lucas is the Sloan Distinguished Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Director of the MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy. Her research focuses on the intersection of finance and public policy, particularly measuring the costs and risks of government financial activities. She evaluates government subsidies to state-owned enterprises, credit guarantees, energy sector policies, pension systems, and financial products like reverse mortgages.

Current roles include visiting scholar at the IMF, Research Associate at the NBER, and editorial board member of Annual Review of Financial Economics. She also serves as an independent director of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, P/E Investments, and NatureServe. Elected positions include membership in the National Academy of Public Administration and the National Academy of Social Insurance, alongside Fellowships at the Asian Bureau of Financial and Economic Research and the Econometric Society.

Her previous roles include Chief Economist at the Congressional Budget Office, senior staff economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and Professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. She holds BA, MA, and PhD in economics from the University of Chicago.

Key research areas include fiscal impacts of government interventions, macroeconomic effects of credit policies, and regulatory frameworks for systemic risk. Recent publications analyze central bank transparency, costs of government bailouts, and the social discount rate in policy evaluation.

• Awards: Fellow of the Econometric Society, Member of National Academy of Public Administration
• Grants/Advising: Extensive testimony before Congress on Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, student loans, and financial institution regulation
• Labs/Teams: Leads MIT Golub Center initiatives on global financial institutions and fiscal policy research