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Benjamin A Olken

TEPCO Professor of Economics · MIT

TEPCO Professor of Economics at MIT and Director of J-PAL; works on development economics, with emphasis on public-sector performance, governance, taxation and environmental problems in developing countries. Fellow of the Econometric Society (2022).

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Published Review of Economic Studies Online 6 Oct 2025 Published Jul 2026

The Origins and Control of Forest Fires in the Tropics

Clare Balboni · Robin Burgess · Benjamin A Olken

This paper studies the economics of illegal tropical forest fires in Indonesia, framed as a modern counterpart to Pigou's canonical externality example of sparks from railway engines. The central …

Public Finance Firm Dynamics Economic Growth Free Read ↗

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Career

2025 – present TEPCO Professor of Economics, MIT
2012 – present Director, Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), MIT
2020 – 2025 Jane Berkowitz Carlton and Dennis William Carlton Professor of Microeconomics, MIT
2012 – 2020 Professor of Economics, MIT
2008 – 2012 Associate Professor with Tenure, MIT
2005 – 2008 Junior Fellow, Harvard Society of Fellows

Editorial roles

Editor American Economic Journal: Applied Economics2020–2025
Co-Editor American Economic Journal: Applied Economics2016–2019
Associate Editor Review of Economics and Statistics2012–2021
Associate Editor Journal of Development Economics2010–present

Research topics

Public Finance Firm Dynamics Economic Growth

Co-authors in the warehouse

Clare Balboni Robin Burgess

Profile compiled from public sources, checked 2026-10-04: [1] · [2] · [3]