Jason Jackson

Jason Jackson is Associate Professor of Political Economy and Urban Planning in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and Director of the Political Economy Lab.

Jason’s research focuses on the relationship between states and markets, particularly the role of economic ideas and moral beliefs in shaping market institutions under modern capitalism. Empirically his work focuses on contexts ranging from the role of economic nationalism in industrial development, to the rise of the digital 'platform' economy and urban mobility markets in contemporary cities in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

Jason is author of Traders, Speculators or Captains of Industry: How Capitalist Legitimacy Shaped Foreign Investment Policy in India (forthcoming with Harvard University Press) and Constructing Economic Nationalisms in Brazil and India (forthcoming with Cambridge University Press).

Jason completed his Ph.D. in Political Economy at MIT. He also holds an AB in Economics from Princeton University, an MSc in Development Economics from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School.