About Carl A. Johnston

I am an economist based in Washington, DC. My work sits at the boundary of academic research and public service, with a focus on how real institutions perform when people, incentives, and politics collide.

Training

• B.A., English, Stanford University
• Ph.D., Economics, George Mason University

My doctoral work examined Medicare Part D as an institutional design problem, combining public economics, industrial organization, and political economy.

Academic and policy experience

Before entering full-time government service, I held research positions at the Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science at George Mason University and at Chapman University, working on experimental markets in electricity, backup capacity, and health-care procurement.

For the past decade I have worked as an economist at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, focusing on investment-based immigration and related policy questions.

Intellectual focus

How can we design rules and institutions that are robust to limited information, bounded rationality, and political constraints?