About

Adam Auerbach is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Yale University. His research centers on local governance, urban politics, and the political economy of development, with a regional focus on South Asia and India in particular. He authored the book 'Demanding Development: The Politics of Public Goods Provision in India’s Urban Slums,' published by Cambridge University Press in 2020, which examines the uneven success of India’s slum residents in demanding and securing essential public services from the state. This project is based on over two years of fieldwork in Jaipur, Rajasthan, and Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, and the book received the Dennis Judd Best Book Award from the Urban and Local Politics Section of the American Political Science Association (APSA). The dissertation that underpins this work also earned three awards, including APSA’s Gabriel A. Almond Award for best dissertation in comparative politics. His second book, co-authored with Tariq Thachil and published by Princeton University Press in 2023, is titled 'Migrants and Machine Politics: How India’s Urban Poor Seek Representation and Responsiveness,' which has garnered multiple awards such as the Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy Prize, the Francine Frankel Prize, the Giovanni Sartori Book Award, and the Best Book Award from the Experimental Research Section of APSA. Auerbach’s research on governance and development in India has been published in numerous prestigious journals including the American Journal of Political Science, American Political Science Review, and Perspectives on Politics, among others. His journal articles have received several awards, notably the Heinz I. Eulau Prize for the best article in the American Political Science Review and the Best Article Award from the American Journal of Political Science.

Research topics

• Economics
• Market economy
• Macroeconomics
• Monetary economics
• Political Science
• Law and economics
• Geography
• Labour economics
• Public economics
• Law
• Economy
• Development economics
• Keynesian economics
• Neoclassical economics

Selected publications

• Public Finance Implications of Economic Inequality

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2025-04-01 · 1 citations

  reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This paper considers questions about the implications of rising inequality for the theory and practice of public finance.It begins by addressing fundamental reasons why the distribution of income or wealth on an annual basis before taxes and transfers offers insufficient information: (1) it does not tell us what resources are actually available to households for consumption; and (2) in providing a snapshot of the resources available to individuals of different ages at a given moment in time, without controlling for life-cycle related differences or income dynamics, it can provide a misleading estimate of the underlying degree of inequality.The paper then considers the implications of high and perhaps rising economic inequality for the design of government policy: top marginal tax rates, phase-outs of government policies for those with higher incomes, the political economy of inequality, and other subjects.

  PublisherDOI

• Then and Now: A Look Back and Ahead at the Federal Budget

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2025-11-01

  reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  It is well-understood that the U.S. faces an unsustainable fiscal future.We review historical budget trends and basic fiscal processes.We provide new estimates of the budget outlook, incorporating the recently enacted One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), and finding that the debt-GDP ratio will rise to 183% in 2054 under the OBBBA as legislated and to 199% if the temporary tax and spending provisions are made permanent.These figures compare to a current debt-GDP ratio of about 100% and a pre-OBBBA CBO analysis earlier this year that projected the 2054 debt-GDP ratio to be 154%.We estimate a fiscal gap -the permanent tax or spending changes needed to keep the 2054 debt-GDP ratio at its current level -to be about 3.4% of GDP if OBBBA is extended.We discuss the economic and political ramifications of debt and different ways to address the fiscal situation.

  PublisherDOI

• Public Finance Implications of Economic Inequality

  The Journal of Economic Perspectives · 2025-05-01 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This paper considers questions about the implications of rising inequality for the theory and practice of public finance. It begins by addressing fundamental reasons why the distribution of income or wealth on an annual basis before taxes and transfers offers insufficient information: (1) it does not tell us what resources are actually available to households for consumption; and (2) in providing a snapshot of the resources available to individuals of different ages at a given moment in time, without controlling for life-cycle related differences or income dynamics, it can provide a misleading estimate of the underlying degree of inequality. The paper then considers the implications of high and perhaps rising economic inequality for the design of government policy: top marginal tax rates, phase-outs of government policies for those with higher incomes, the political economy of inequality, and other subjects.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Tax and Fiscal Policy and Its Evaluation in the United States

  2025-05-22

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This chapter evaluates U.S. tax and fiscal policies, focusing on sustainability, economic impact, contribution to inequality, and response to international tax competition. It argues that U.S. fiscal policy is unsustainable, worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, with political challenges limiting fiscal stimulus to recessions, which in the past has shown to be very effective. Despite rising inequality, U.S. fiscal policy helps mitigate it. This is particularly evident if one takes a lifetime perspective. However, maintaining progressive transfer payments is doubtful given the current fiscal path, as substantial cuts in spending or increases and taxes will be required. The chapter also notes the uncertain future of international tax reforms initiated by the United States in 2017.

  PublisherDOI

• Public Finance Implications of Economic Inequality

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Demand Stimulus as Social Policy

  The Review of Economic Studies · 2025-11-06

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract We exploit a panel of city-level data with rich demographic information to estimate the distributional effects of Department of Defense spending and its effects on a range of social outcomes. The income and employment generated by defence spending accrue predominantly to households without a bachelor's degree. These households as well as Black and Hispanic households tend to disproportionately benefit from this spending. Defence spending also promotes a range of beneficial social outcomes that are often targeted by government programs, including reductions in poverty, divorce rates, disability rates, and mortality rates, as well as increases in homeownership rates, health insurance rates, and occupational prestige. We compare the effects of defence spending with the effects of general demand shocks and explore reasons for the differential effects of the shocks.

  PublisherDOI

• Then and Now: A Look Back and Ahead at the Federal Budget

  Tax Policy and the Economy · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Inflation’s Fiscal Impact on American Households

  NBER Macroeconomics Annual · 2025-07-01 · 1 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Inflation's Impact on American Households

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2024-05-01 · 4 citations

  reportOpen access

  The post-COVID price surge has reignited interest in inflation’s impact on American households. Even if anticipated and with full market adjustments, inflation affects households through its interaction with the fiscal system, which is the focus of this paper. Inflation affects households through its interaction with the fiscal. We run the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), assuming different inflation rates, through the Fiscal Analyzer (TFA) – a life cycle, consumption-smoothing tool incorporating all major federal and state fiscal programs. Before doing so, we adjust the SCF data to neutralize inflation’s non-fiscal effects. A permanent increase in the inflation rate from zero to 10 percent reduces median lifetime spending by 6.82 percent. This impact is smaller – 4.74 percent – when fiscal COLAs aren’t lagged. But the big stories are the progressivity of inflation’s increase in net taxation, its age pattern, and its heterogeneity. The 15.9 percent median lifetime spending loss of the top 1 percent from 10 percent inflation is roughly 2.5 times that of the bottom quintile. Middle aged households are hit far harder because they have more asset income, which, with inflation, is taxed at a higher effective rate. The 25th percentile of spending changes is a reduction of 9.84 percent. The 75th percentile change is still a reduction of 4.83 percent. The maximum spending decline (increase) across all households is 64.9 (46.7) percent. Thus, the distribution of welfare is highly sensitive to significant, ongoing inflation.

  PublisherDOI

• Fiscal Multipliers in the Covid-19 Recession

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Laurence J. Kotlikoff

  278 shared

• Yuriy Gorodnichenko

  124 shared

• Michael Devereux

  66 shared

• William G. Gale

  Brookings Institution

  54 shared

• Jagadeesh Gokhale

  University of Pennsylvania

  50 shared

• Darryl Koehler

  45 shared

• Kevin A. Hassett

  38 shared

• Michael Keen

  The University of Tokyo

  37 shared

Awards & honors

• Dennis Judd Best Book Award from the Urban and Local Politic…
• APSA’s Gabriel A. Almond Award for best dissertation in comp…
• Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy Prize from the Association for A…
• Francine Frankel Prize from the South Asia Section of APSA
• Giovanni Sartori Book Award from the Qualitative and Mixed-M…