Aparna Mathur is a Senior Research Manager in Economics at Amazon. At Amazon, she researches and analyzes labor related policies for the global Amazonian workforce. She is also a Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Mossavar-Rahmani Center, and a Visiting Scholar at FREOPP, where she will research safety net issues during and prior to the pandemic. Prior to Amazon, she was a Senior Economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers from April 2020 to April 2021 where she was part of the COVID-19 response task force. Before CEA, she was a Resident Scholar in Economic Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. She received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2005 after completing a Masters in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics and an undergraduate degree from Hindu College in Delhi University.
At AEI, she co-directed the AEI-Brookings Project on Paid Family and Medical Leave, for which she was recognized in the Politico 50 list for 2017. The report was also presented to the White House in June 2017. Her academic research has focused on income inequality and mobility, tax policy, labor markets and small businesses and she has published in top academic journals. She has testified several times before Congress and published numerous articles in the popular press on issues of policy relevance. Her work has been cited in leading news magazines such as the Economist, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Bloomberg, Financial Times and Businessweek. Government organizations such as the Congressional Research Service and the Congressional Budget Office have also cited her work in their reports to Congress. She is a regular contributor to Forbes, and has frequently been a commentator on NPR. Her TV appearances include CNN, Fox Business, CNBC, Bloomberg TV and C-Span. She has been an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School Of Public Policy and has taught economics at the University of Maryland. She has been serving on the University of Maryland Economics Leadership Council since 2019. She also currently serves on the board of the National Economists Club and the National Academy of Social Insurance.
RESUME (PDF) TWITTER: @aparnamath LINKEDIN FREOPP SCHOLAR PAGE FORBES OPINION PIECES FORMER AEI PAGE
EMAIL: aparnamath@gmail.com
2025
Speaker, Aging in America Summit, Session on “Autonomy and Aging Policy: Leveraging Behavioral Economics to Empower Early Decisions,” July
Moderator, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Panel on “Structural Drivers of Population Health,” June
Speaker, Tax and Labor Policies to Improve Population Health, UPenn Leonard Davis Institute of Population Health, March
2024
IRS Modernization: A Fireside Chat with Aparna Mathur, FREOPP Freedom and Progress Conference, November
Panel on US Economic Outlook, NYU Stern School of Business, September
Fireside Chat, Executives Partnering to Invest in Children (EPIC), Colorado, September
Speaker, Future of Work, National Association of Workforce Development Professionals and Amazon, August
Participant, Dialog 2024, August
Moderator and Conference host, “The Good and the Bad:A Discussion of Small Business and Worker Support Programs During the Pandemic,” February (M-RCBG event)
2023
Speaker, “Crafting Tomorrow’s Workforce: Trends, Insights and Strategic Approaches,” co-hosted by Amazon and National Association of Workforce Boards, November 2023
Speaker, “Strengthening the US Social Safety Net,” National Economist Club, November 2023
Speaker, “Redesigning the Safety Net,” FREOPP Annual Conference, November 2023
Speaker, NASI Ball Award Ceremony, November 2023
Speaker, Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity Webinar, “Helping Kids and Families Thrive: New Evidence on Cash Supports”, June 2023
Speaker, Virginia Military Institute, “What Will Help Us When We Fall? Reforming the US Social Safety Net,” March 2023
Speaker, National Academies of Sciences Symposium, “Shifting the Nation’s Health Investments to Support Long, Healthier Lives for All,” March 2023
M-RCBG Study Group at Harvard Kennedy School, “Did Countries Get It Right? Pakistan and US Responses to the COVID-19 crisis”, April 2023 (with Reza Baqir, former Central Bank Governor of Pakistan)
Organizer and Moderator, “Evaluating the Role of the Paycheck Protection Program During COVID-19,” (with Glenn Hubbard and David Autor), HKS M-RCBG, January
2022
Speaker, FREOPP Annual Conference, “Welfare Reform, Social Mobility and the Safety Net,” November
Speaker, NASI Ball Award Ceremony, November
Moderator, “Child Poverty: Trends and Outlook”, Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity and the Doris Duke Foundation Event, November
Speaker, HKS Study Group, “How Effective Was US Pandemic Spending? Lessons for Future Crises,” HKS M-RCBG, October
Organizer and Moderator, “A True Social Safety Net or Hanging on By A Thread?”. (with Diane Schanzenbach, Jason Furman and Robert Moffitt), HKS M-RCBG, March
Speaker, “Economic Policy in Challenging Times”, St. Louis Fed Women in Economics Symposium, February
Organizer and Moderator, “A True Social Safety Net or Hanging On By a Thread?”, Kennedy School Webinar, March 2022
Speaker, “Economic Policy in Challenging Times”, St. Louis Fed Women in Economics Symposium, February 2022
Keynote Panel Speaker, Family Stability and Economic Mobility Research Consortium, Urban Institute Conference, February 2022
Study Group Presentation, “Is the U.S. Social Safety Net Delivering On it’s Promise?,” Harvard Kennedy School, February 2022
Speaker, National Tax Association Meeting, ""Frayed Protection: Social Safety Net Spending During the Pandemic", November 2021
Webinar at Harvard Kennedy School, "Frayed Protection: Social Safety Net Spending During the Pandemic" (with Elaine Maag, Tax Policy Center), November 2021
Keynote Speaker, Strategica 2021, “Future of Work Post COVID-19.” October (hosted by National Bank of Romania, Romanian Academic Society of Management and Faculty of Management SNSPA)
Speaker, Association of Washington Business, 2021 Policy Conference, Council of Economic Advisers Panel, September 2021
Panel Speaker, “Can a Carbon Tax Be Politically Feasible?” European Consortium for Political Research, August 2021
Speaker and Moderator, “Cash and Kids: Momentum on Child Tax Credit Policy and Other Ideas to Increase Family Income,” American Academy of Political and Social Sciences and Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, July 2021
Keynote session speaker, Washington State Economic Symposium 2021, “A Post-Pandemic Roadmap to Recovery Metrics that Matter,” June 2021
Speaker, “Exacerbating Inequality: Impact of COVID-19 on Women and Work,” Impact and Policy Research Institute, Gender Impact Studies Center, May 2021
“Expanding Economic Opportunity: Inequality, Labor and Wages,” AEI Executive Council event, February 2021
Speaker, launch of “Simply Green”, an environmental nonprofit based in Romania, January 2021
“Reducing Administrative Burdens To Increase Access to Safety Net Programs,” Health Affairs Forefront (November 2024)
“The Million Dollar Rule, Executive Compensation and Managerial Risk-Taking,” (with Jared DeLisle, Aspen Gorry and Cody Kallen), Harvard Kennedy School Working Paper (October 2021)
“Distributional Analysis of the TCJA: Impact of Business and Individual Tax Provisions on Households” (with Cody Kallen), AEI Economics Working Paper 2019-07 (covered in Brookings Institution blog: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2019/04/17/whats-in-an-equivalence-scale-maybe-more-than-you-think/, and Tax Notes), accepted at National Tax Journal
“The Elasticity of Taxable Income in the Presence of Intertemporal Income Shifting,” (with Glenn Hubbard and Aspen Gorry), NBER Working Paper w24531, Volume 74, Number 1, National Tax Journal (March 2021)
“Did Right to Work Laws Increase Income Inequality? Evidence from U.S. States Using the Synthetic Control Method,” (with Devesh Roy and Abdul Munasib), AEI Economics Working Paper, Volume 21, Issue 1, B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy (August 2020)
“Rethinking the Green New Deal: Using Climate Policy to Address Inequality,” (Paper presentation, National Tax Association Spring Symposium, May 2019, AEI Economics Working Paper 2019-14), Volume 72, Issue 4, National Tax Journal (December 2019)
2024
Interview with Scot Bertram on paid family and medical leave, Future of Freedom podcast, available on Apple and Spotify, March
VidPed Interview on life and journey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP4D6VOD80A, January
2023
Economist Interview, The Interview Portal, https://theinterviewportal.com/2023/03/29/economist-interview/, March
Interview, Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, “Creating a One Stop Shop for US Aid Programs,” January
2022
Tax Foundation: https://taxfoundation.org/cigarette-taxes-cigarette-smuggling-2022/, December
Forbes India: https://www.forbesindia.com/article/take-one-big-story-of-the-day/its-not-just-maiden-pharmaceuticals-indias-health-care-authorities-also-need-to-take-the-blame-for-the-gambian-fiasco/80435/1, October
Deseret News: https://www.deseret.com/2022/10/7/23389734/american-family-survey-four-day-work-week-paid-family-leave, October
Politico:https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/07/15/republicans-losing-millennial-moms-essay-00045156, July
Tax Foundation: https://taxfoundation.org/carbon-taxes-green-tax-reforms/, June
2021
PBS Newshour: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/the-pandemic-was-a-breaking-point-for-caretakers-will-it-be-a-turning-point, October
The Economist: https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2021/05/13/who-bears-the-burden-of-a-corporate-tax, May
Podcast “Sanaartham” on Paid Family and Medical Leave, Hindu College, Department of Economics, April
WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-aims-at-profit-hits-workers-11617747500, April
WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/articles/here-come-the-biden-taxes-11617231225, March
“Redesigning Technology to Help Low-Income Taxpayers Access the Social Safety Net,” FREOPP Report (support from Clapham Group), November 2024
American Family Diaries: Can Ethnographic Research Help Shape Public Policy?, December 2019 (with chapters from Jennifer Silva, Nick Eberstadt, Sally Satel, Bruce Meyer, Robert Moffitt, Brad Wilcox)
Link: https://www.aei.org/american-family-diaries-3/
The 2018 AEI-Brookings Working Group Report on Paid Family and Medical Leave, September 2018
(including an online Paid Family and Medical Leave Cost Model)
Link: https://www.aei.org/events/the-2018-aei-brookings-project-on-paid-family-leave/
“A Growing Competition of Ideas on Paid Family Leave” Written Statement Submitted for the Hearing Record, House Ways and Means Committee, January 2020
“Extending the Tax Credit for Paid Family Leave Would Provide Valuable Time to Assess Its Success,” (with Erin Melly), Comment Submitted to the Health Task Force (Senators Toomey, Casey, Enzi and Warner), Senate Finance Committee, June 2019
“Paid Family Leave: Understanding the Benefits and the Costs” Written Statement Submitted for the Hearing Record, House Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Worker and Family Support, Hearing on “Leveling the Playing Field for Working Families: Challenges and Opportunities”, March 2019
“Is Corporate Tax Competition Harmful or Efficient?” IFC Review, March 2025
“The Incidence of Corporate Income Taxes: Much Debated, Little Understood,” IFC Review, March 2024
“Decoding Pillar One Amount A: Some Insights and A Q&A with ChatGPT,” IFC Review, January 2024
“Profit Shifting: Let’s Define the Problem Before We Rush to the Solution,” IFC Review, June 2023
“The Brave New World of Minimum Taxes”, IFC Review, January 2023
“Proposal for a New US Social Safety Net: Direct Cash Support and One-Stop Shop”, Forbes, December 2022 (reposted on Medium)
“A Miss in the Inflation Reduction Act: Better Paid Leave Policies”, Tribune News Service (multiple outlets), September 2022
Interview with Indiastat, “Rising Inflation and the Relief Masses Need,” January 2022
"The Power of Community," (with Abby McCloskey), National Affairs Magazine Summer Issue, June 2020
"The International Tax Ping Pong: From Competition to Coordination and Back" IFC Review Magazine, April 2020
"Here’s One Way To Provide Small Businesses A Fresh Start,” The Dispatch, March 2020
“The Coronavirus Paid Leave Deal Could Do Even Better for Workers and Businesses,” (with Vicki Shabo), AEIdeas, March 2020
“Is the Coronavirus Relief Deal Sufficient to Solve the Crisis?” (with Angela Rachidi), The Hill, March 2020
“The Best Short-Term and Long-Term Stimulus Package for Covid-19,” (With Erin Melly), AEIdeas, March 2020
“Paid Medical Time Off: A Sensible Way To Stem the Spread of COVID-19” (with Erin Melly), AEIdeas, March 2020
“Let the Dust Settle on the TCJA before Judging Its Effectiveness,” TaxVox blog (Tax Policy Center), February 2020
“Women Are A Majority Of the Workforce: Time To Celebrate?,” (with Erin Melly) AEIdeas, January 2020
“Paid Leave and Labor Force Participation: What Do We Know,” Forbes, January 2020