معرفی
Elena Lutz is a Research Fellow at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT and a Ph.D. candidate in Urban Development and City Policy at ETH Zurich. Her research focuses on urban planning, sustainability, and urban economics, using quantitative methods like causal inference and computational urban science to evaluate public policies such as land use and transport regulations.
She holds an MSc in Political Economy of Europe (with distinction) from the London School of Economics and a BSc in International Economics from the University of Tübingen, where she specialized in Statistics. She also spent a semester at the University of Hong Kong and has professional experience through internships at the German Central Bank and the German Development Agency (GIZ), as well as part-time work at Ernst & Young.
Her research interests include the social and environmental impacts of urban policies, with a particular emphasis on housing affordability, socioeconomic segregation, and sustainable urban densification. She has conducted studies on zoning regulations in Zurich, public transit access in Bogotá, and vertical building extensions as alternatives to urban renewal. Her work also explores low-data contexts in the Global South using smartphone GPS data.
Elena’s publications analyze land-use policy effects, gentrification, and intergenerational justice in housing. She has received notable awards, including the Nathaniel Lichtfeld Award for her master’s thesis and the ARES Best Manuscript Award in Housing. She contributes to projects like the MIT Urban Economics Lab and the Co-Creating Mobility Hubs initiative with SBB, ETH Zurich, and EPF Lausanne.
Her research bridges academia and practice, addressing pressing urban challenges through interdisciplinary collaboration and innovative data applications. She actively engages in policy discussions and has been featured in media such as the Tagesanzeiger and SRF.
