Austin Lentsch is originally from rural South Dakota.  Seeing the challenges of mom-and-pop agriculture – coupled with few alternatives for employment and opportunity – sparked his interest in technology and policy as avenues to expand opportunity for those left behind by economic change.  

Austin cares about the dynamics that drive the widening urban-rural/rich-poor economic and social divides.  He thinks that the usefulness of AI and the direction of technology are up for grabs as forces that could widen or narrow societal divides.  He also wonders what the future of U.S. antitrust policy will look like, but thinks that the concentration of many sectors today offers a useful sandbox to study the effects of tech monopolies and labor monopsonies.  He looks forward to investigating (and finding ways to improve) the prospects of workers – no matter which degrees they hold – and how institutions, innovation, power, and policy can generate shared prosperity.  

Austin is currently working on his PhD in Public Policy/Economics as an NSF Graduate Fellow at Harvard University.  Previously, Austin was an economic consultant at Charles River Associates in Antitrust & Competition Economics.  Most recently, he worked at MIT with Daron Acemoglu, David Autor, and Simon Johnson to launch the Shaping the Future of Work Initiative and help publish the book Power and Progress.  Austin has two dogs (Ginger and Sophie), and enjoys comedy clubs, musical performances, distance running, and hardcover books.