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Jason Jackson is an Assistant Professor in Political Economy and Urban Planning in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. He was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Professor Jackson’s research focuses on the relationship between states and markets. It seeks to understand the historical origins and evolution of the institutional arrangements through which states and markets are constituted from the late 19th century to the present. His work is particularly focused on the role of economic ideas and moral beliefs in shaping market institutions. It assesses the implications of political struggles between business, government and societal actors for market structure and resulting competitive and distributional outcomes. Empirically his work focuses on contexts ranging from the politics of monopoly and foreign investment in India from the late colonial period to the present, to the ‘sharing economy’ and urban transportation markets in contemporary cities in Asia, Europe and the United States.

Professor Jackson 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. He has won fellowships from the Social Sciences Research Council and the UK-based Overseas Development Institute, and has worked with a variety of private, non-governmental and multilateral organizations in the Caribbean, South Africa and the United States.