Laura M. Kawano
Laura Kawano is a Research Affiliate with the Office of Tax Policy Research at the University of Michigan and an Affiliated Scholar of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. Dr. Kawano's primary research interests center around using administrative data to understand how individuals and firms respond to tax policies. She also examines the effects of financial aid for higher education, unemployment insurance, and natural disasters. She currently serves as the Forum Editor at the National Tax Journal and as the Treasurer for the National Tax Association.
Before joining OTPR, Dr. Kawano was a financial economist at the Office of Tax Analysis at the U.S. Department of Treasury. She also was a visiting professor at the Wharton Business School. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan, and B.A. in Economics from Occidental College.
She is originally from Waimea on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi and currently resides in McLean, VA.
Research interests: Public Finance, Labor Economics, Applied Econometrics
lkawano@umich.edu