Brown University Department of Economics

We invite the Brown community and our friends around the world to join together in observing a moment of silence to mark six months since the shooting that occurred on our campus on December 13, 2025.

We acknowledge the void left by the two members of the Brown family we lost, and the pain that our entire community has carried since that day. We recognize our community’s grief and its resilience, and the continued healing that is part of our shared experience.

International Monetary Fund featured Şebnem Kalemli-Özcan on this month's F&D for her work analyzing why, after decades of globalization, capital doesn’t always flow freely across international borders in search of the highest returns and what this means for economic development and financial stability. Her focus on microdata has helped to unravel some economic mysteries. Read the full article:

Şebnem Kalemli-Özcan: Micro Maestro Chris Wellisz profiles Brown’s Şebnem Kalemli-Özcan, who mines business-level data to explain global capital flows

This past Sunday, 431 undergraduate and 12 Ph.D. students received economics degrees at the Brown University Commencement. Congratulations and best wishes to all of our graduates! A special thank you to our student speaker, Maria Claudia Gurjão Bonaparte, Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Brian Knight and to Kareen Rozen, Chair of the Department of Economics. Thank you to the students, staff and faculty who helped to make our commencement ceremony so wonderful.

The Economics Department is thrilled to announce that Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcanto is the recipient of the Review of Economic Studies' Excellence in Refereeing Award. She was selected for her contribution in providing the journal with multiple timely, constructive and insightful referee reports over the past year. Congratulations!

The Economics Department is excited to announce that we will be welcoming three new faculty members this upcoming academic year. Pablo Ottonello and Fabrizio Perri will be joining the Economics Department and the Watson School as Professors of Economics, and Paula Donaldson will be joining the department as an Assistant Professor.

We are thrilled to welcome them to Brown and look forward to having them join our community!

Orlando Bravo ’92 has made a $12M gift through the Bravo Family Foundation to support the Economics Department and the Watson School International and Public Affair, funding two endowed professorships and advancing research in economics and policy.

Generous gift to fund two professorships, catalyze new economics and policy research at Brown A $12 million gift from the Bravo Family Foundation, founded by Brown University alumnus Orlando Bravo, will bolster research, teaching in the Department of Economics and Watson School of International and Public Affairs.