As the 2026-2027 academic year kicks off, the Economics Department at Princeton is proud to announce three new members of its faculty. 

From experts in labor economics to inequality to econometrics, learn more about each person and their areas of research.

Matias Cattaneo

Joining us from the Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering, Professor Matias Cattaneo is affiliated with both the Economics Department (and the Gregory C. Chow Econometric Research Program and the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance) and Princeton’s School for Public and International Affairs (Princeton SPIA). His research focuses on the mathematical and statistical foundations of data science, at the intersection of econometrics, statistics, applied mathematics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. He develops statistical and computational methods for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences, with emphasis on program evaluation and causal inference.

Will Dobbie

William Dobbie, an economist studying the causes and consequences of poverty in America, has joined the department as a Professor of Economics. His recent work has examined racial discrimination in the criminal justice system, the changing nature of economic mobility in the United States, and how to build more human-centered AI. Dobbie received his Ph.D. from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a tenured professor before joining Princeton. He is affiliated with Princeton’s Industrial Relations Section (IRS) and the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance.

Elena Manresa

Elena Manresa, an economist with research interests in microeconometrics, machine learning/AI, financial econometrics, and health, has joined the department as a Professor of Economics. Manresa received her Ph.D. in economics from CEMFI in 2014 and previously taught at MIT Sloan and NYU.