Gbenga Ajilore
Chief Economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Washington, DC
Experience
- Senior Advisor in the Office of the Undersecretary for Rural Development at USDA (Biden administration)
- Senior Economist at the Center for American Progress
- Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Toledo
Expertise
- U.S. economic policy
- Rural issues
Education
- Claremont Graduate University, PhD, Economics
- University of California, Berkeley ,BA, Applied Mathematics and Economics
Recent Coverage
DECEMBER 27, 2024
Marketplace: Explaining the Baumol Effect through Classical Music
“In order to keep people in industries where the labor productivity is not going up, you have to match the wages in the ones where the labor productivity is going up,” said Ajilore.
JUNE 28, 2023
NPR Planet Money: Two Truths and a Lie, a Planet Money Gameshow
GBENGA AJILORE: As an economist, we’ve always loved natural experiments, but with states. And it’s always talking about at the state level and looking at state variation, but we don’t go a level lower.
MARCH 22, 2021
NPR: Myths and Realities of America’s Rural Economy
JULY 2, 2020
NPR: The Indicator from Planet Money
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About Gbenga
Gbenga Ajilore is the Center’s Chief Economist. He most recently served as a senior advisor in the Office of the Undersecretary for Rural Development at the United States Department of Agriculture. Previously, he was a senior economist at the Center for American Progress and a tenured associate professor of economics at the University of Toledo. His expertise includes regional economic development, macroeconomic policy, and issues in diversity and inclusion. He has been invited to testify before Congress and has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He holds a Ph.D in economics from Claremont Graduate University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
