Aaron Berman is a PhD candidate in the Department of Economics at MIT. Aaron’s research focuses on the economic determinants of environmental outcomes in developing countries. He seeks to document the economic forces that create tension between economic growth and environmental quality and to identify policy solutions that may alleviate this tension. Currently, he is working on a research project that evaluates the impact of fuel subsidies in the fishing industry and how they distort the spatial pattern of fishing globally. He is also in the process of designing a randomized experiment involving manufacturing firms in Turkey to evaluate potential policies to prepare small firms for the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).
Prior to arriving at MIT, Aaron received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale University, and worked as a pre-doctoral research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School and with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) Southeast Asia office in Jakarta, Indonesia. Outside of the Economics Department, he has served as a member of MIT President Reif’s Presidential Advisory Cabinet, and in his spare time, he enjoys running, trivia, and playing tennis.