Randall Akee

Randall Akee is an associate professor in the Department of Public Policy and American Indian Studies at UCLA. A microeconomist, Akee studies labor economics, economic development, and migration among Native Americans, First Nations, Native Pacific Islanders and Native Hawaiians.

He has researched causes of migration and human trafficking; the effects of changes in household income on education level and obesity; the impact of political institutions on economic development; and the role of institutional property in individual investment decisions. He also studies income and earnings inequality across several racial and ethnic groups.

Akee is a research fellow at the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development and the Center for Effective Global Action at the University of California, Berkeley. He also serves on the University of California Office of the President’s Native American Advisory Council.

Previously, Akee was a David M. Rubenstein Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution and an assistant professor of economics at Tufts University. He spent several years working for the State of Hawaii Office of Hawaiian Affairs Economic Development Division. In 2013, he served on the National Advisory Council on Race, Ethnic and Other Populations at the U.S. Census Bureau.

Akee’s research has been published in economics journals such as the American Economic Review and Journal of Law and Economics, and cultural journals such as the American Indian Cultural and Research Journal and International Indigenous Policy Journal.