Alexander Gelber

Adjunct Consultant

Alexander Gelber is a tenured Associate Professor at the UC San Diego Department of Economics and School of Global Policy and Strategy, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Gelber's research concerns public finance, particularly issues relating to taxation and social insurance. His work has been published in leading academic journals including the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, and New England Journal of Medicine. In some cases, his work has involved program evaluations of public programs in which eligibility has been randomized across applicants. He is a Co-Editor at the Journal of Public Economics and an Associate Editor at the Journal of the European Economic Association. His work has been supported by external grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging, Social Security Disability Research Consortium, Social Security Retirement Research Consortium, Sloan Foundation, Sandell Foundation, and Upjohn Institute. He was an assistant professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania from 2009 to 2012. He was at the UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy from 2013 to 2018, receiving tenure there in 2017.

During 2012 to 2013, Gelber served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the U.S. Treasury Department, and in 2013 he served as Acting Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy and Acting Chief Economist at Treasury. He has also served as a consultant on economics, data analysis, and public policy in various contexts.

Gelber earned an A.B. magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa and a Ph.D. in economics, both from Harvard. He has received a number of honors including the U.S. Treasury Meritorious Service Award and the National Tax Association Musgrave Prize.