Assist. Prof. Katy Bergstrom

Welfare Costs of Labor Supply Frictions

Katy Bergstrom’s research lies at the intersection of public and development economics, with a particular focus on optimal taxation, social safety net design, and the determinants of inequality in both developed and developing countries. Her recent work has combined theoretical and empirical approaches to examine the welfare costs of labor supply frictions in the US and Germany, the welfare impacts of a notch reform to one of the world’s largest cash transfer programs, Bolsa Familia in Brazil, and the relevant welfare metric(s) to use when conducting optimal local policy reforms across an arbitrary set of government policies.

During her visit at CES, Ms. Bergstrom will pursue new research in collaboration with Francesco Capozza, William Dodds, Juan Rios, and Krishna Srinivasa, exploring societal preferences for redistribution based on beneficiary characteristics such as health status, family composition, age, and income. She also plans to advance a preliminary project with William Dodds on determining optimal income tax schedules in the presence of labor market frictions and to develop new collaborations in the areas of optimal taxation and redistribution.

Katy Bergstrom is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Tulane University. Prior to joining Tulane, she worked as an Economist in the World Bank’s Development Research Group. Ms. Bergstrom holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Mathematics from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and a PhD in Economics from Stanford University.