Charlie Rafkin

Charlie Rafkin will join the University of British Columbia as an Assistant Professor of Economics in January 2026. Charlie received a PhD from MIT in June 2024 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley in 2024–25. Charlie's research is in public and behavioral economics, with specific interests in the design of transfer programs and housing insecurity. Charlie's dissertation examined the causes of eviction from rental housing in Memphis, Tennessee, particularly how social relationships between landlords and tenants might shape eviction and the design of eviction policy interventions. Beyond eviction, other research has examined benefit program take-up or the design of public policies, like e-cigarette regulations, when people make mistakes or have behavioral biases. 

Website: charlierafkin.com 

Focal areas: Housing and Infrastructure, Inequality, Taxes and Public Spending