David Autor is Ford Professor in the MIT Department of Economics, codirector of the NBER Labor Studies Program and the MIT Shaping the Future of Work Initiative. His scholarship explores the labor-market impacts of technological change and globalization on job polarization, skill demands, earnings levels and inequality, and electoral outcomes.
Autor has received numerous awards for both his scholarship—the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, the Sherwin Rosen Prize for outstanding contributions to the field of Labor Economics, the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship in 2019, the Society for Progress Medal in 2021—and for his teaching, including the MIT MacVicar Faculty Fellowship. In 2020, Autor received the Heinz 25th Special Recognition Award from the Heinz Family Foundation for his work “transforming our understanding of how globalization and technological change are impacting jobs and earning prospects for American workers.” In 2023, Autor was selected as one of two researchers across all scientific fields a NOMIS Distinguished Scientist.

The Economist magazine labeled Autor in 2019 as “The academic voice of the American worker.” Later that same year, and with equal justification, he was christened “Twerpy MIT Economist” by John Oliver of Last Week Tonight in a segment on automation and employment.

Jessica Pan is Vice Provost (Graduate Education) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). She is also Dean of NUS Graduate School (NUSGS). Prior to that, she was Vice Dean of Academic Programmes at NUSGS, Deputy Head of Research at the Department of Economics, and Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Studies at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS).
A labour economist by training, Prof Pan has been highly recognised for her research on applied topics in gender, education, and immigration. In recognition of her research accomplishments, she was awarded the NUS Young Researcher Award in 2022, Dean’s Chair in 2019, and the FASS Award for Promising Researcher in 2015. In 2020, she was elected as a fellow of the prestigious Econometric Society. She is also a Research Fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics, the leading international network in labour economics, and the Centre for Economic Policy Research.

Prof Pan currently serves as Co-Editor of the Journal of Public Economics. Previously, she was Associate Editor of the Journal of the European Economic Association, the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, and the Journal of Population Economics. She is also Secretary (President-designate) of the Asian and Australasian Society of Labor Economics and serves regularly as a research consultant to various Singapore government ministries.

Prof Pan received a Bachelor’s in Economics from the University of Chicago, followed by an MBA and PhD from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.