Anna Russo is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Economics at MIT, focusing on the role of government intervention in the design and regulation of markets. Her current research analyzes how information asymmetry can erode the performance of markets for natural capital. This market friction has made offset markets highly controversial, as fears of “non-additional” contracts abound despite markets’ potential to facilitate increased provision of environmental services and gains from trade. Her research quantifies the importance of “non-additional” contracts and proposes design improvements, focusing on the setting of payments for ecosystem services contracts in U.S. agriculture.
Anna’s research has been supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the C. Lowell Hariss Dissertation Fellowship, and the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Fellowship in Aging and Health Research. She holds a B.S. in Economics and Applied Mathematics from Yale University.