Elena Patel is Co-Director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, the Pozen Director’s Chair and a Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution. Her research examines how tax systems, health programs and social safety nets shape economic behaviour and well-being. She studies how tax policy affects investment and capital accumulation, how incentives and risks influence employment decisions and how governance and health policy intersect with labour markets and economic security.

Elena also serves as a Fiscal Policy Impact Scholar at the University of Utah’s Marriner S. Eccles Institute. Previously, she was the Sorenson Assistant Professor at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business and held several federal government positions, including serving as Senior Public Finance Economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers and as an economist at the U.S. Treasury. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan.