Michael Mueller-Smith

Michael Mueller-Smith is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Michigan and a Faculty Associate at the Population Studies Center. His research focuses on the socioeconomic impacts of the criminal justice system, including the effects of incarceration, discrimination, and public assistance programs. He directs the Criminal Justice Administrative Records System (CJARS), a collaborative project with the U.S. Census Bureau to integrate criminal justice data with socioeconomic records.

Education: Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University (2015), followed by a NICHD Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Population Studies Center (2015–2017). His research spans the criminal justice system’s lifecycle effects on marginalized populations, including studies on concealment costs for sexual minorities and legal recognition’s impact on same-sex couples.

Research interests include criminal justice reform, economic consequences of legal systems, and data infrastructure for policy analysis. Key awards include the 2015 Upjohn Institute Dissertation Award (Honorable Mention) and the 2024 Excellence in Refereeing Award.

Grants and projects: CJARS, funded by the National Science Foundation, focuses on modernizing entity resolution techniques and linking diverse datasets. His work also addresses racial disparities in criminal justice data and barriers faced by justice-involved entrepreneurs.

Labs/Teams: Director of CJARS, collaborating with the Census Bureau to advance criminal justice data integration.