Professional Affiliations

Professor, Department of Economics, Columbia University

Professor, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University

Former Member, President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers

Affiliated Professor, Norwegian School of Business and Economics

Editor, Journal of Labor Economics

Elected Executive Committee Member, American Economic Association

Advisory Board Member, Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute

Founding Member, Economists for Inclusive Prosperity

Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research

Research Fellow, Institution for the Study of Labor 

Research Affiliate, Institute for Research on Poverty

Principal Investigator, Center for Research on Fairness, Inequality, and Rationality (FAIR)


Recent Work

The (Un)Importance of Inheritance, January 2022. (Joint with Paul J. Devereux, Fanny Landaud, and Kjell G. Salvanes.)

Gender and Inheritances, January 2022. (Joint with Paul J. Devereux, Fanny Landaud, and Kjell G. Salvanes.)

Where Does Wealth Come From? NBER Working Paper #28239, December 2020. (Joint with Paul J. Devereux, Fanny Landaud, and Kjell G. Salvanes.)

Taking It To the Limit: Effects of Increased Student Loan Availability on Attainment, Earnings, and Financial Well-Being, NBER Working Paper #27658, August 2020. Under revision for American Economic Review. (Joint with Jeffrey T. Denning, Lisa Dettling, Sarena Goodman, and Lesley Turner.) Online Appendix.


Winners and Losers? The Effect of Gaining and Losing Access to Selective Colleges on Education and Labor Market Outcomes, NBER Working Paper #26821, March 2020, forthcoming at American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. (Joint with Jeffrey T. Denning and Jesse Rothstein.)

In the news: Inside Higher Ed, The Weeds


Poor Little Rich Kids? The Role of Nature versus Nurture in Wealth and Other Economic Outcomes and BehaviorsReview of Economic Studies. Volume 87, Issue 4, July 2020. (Joint with Paul Devereux, Petter Lundborg, and Kaveh Majlesi.) (Ungated working paper)

In the news: The Atlantic, FiveThirtyEight, KUT Austin,


Sibling SpilloversThe Economic Journal. Volume 131, Issue 633, January 2021. (Joint with Sanni Breining, David Figlio, Jonathan Guryan, Krzysztof Karbownik, Helena Skyt Nielsen, Jeffrey Roth, and Marianne Simonsen.) (Ungated working paper)https://www.sandraeblack.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Appendices_2023_01_03.pdf