Elena Spatoulas Patel

I am an Assistant Professor in the Division of Quantitative Analysis of Markets and Organizations and the Sorenson Assistant Professor in the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. During the 2023-2024 Academic Year I will be on leave while I serve as a Senior Economist on the Council of Economic Advisors.

My work explores how policy -- for example, tax structure and government programs -- affect firms' critical assets: capital and labor. In one branch of my research, I study how features of the US tax system affect firms' ability to accumulate capital, including work studying the effect of specific tax policies and optimal business tax systems. In another, I study firms' fundamental choices, including investment, responses to changing market conditions, and barriers to organizational diversity. Finally, I study workers' employment decisions, including the role of the social safety net.

Prior to joining the University of Utah, I worked extensively in the federal government including the Office of Tax Analysis at the US Treasury Department, the Office of Accountability and Compliance at the Postal Regulatory Commission, the Macroeconomic Analysis Division at the Congressional Budget Office, and the Antitrust Division at the US Department of Justice. 

In 2007, I earned a Bachelor of Science with Distinction Degree in Economics (with Honors) and Mathematics, with a minor in Modern Greek Studies from the University of Michigan. In 2008, I earned a Master of Arts Degree in Economics in 2008, and in 2013, I earned a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Economics from the University of Michigan. Go Blue!