Economist tapped to aid state treasurer: Redwood City’s Jonathan Hall, of Uber, named to economic council

Hall received a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in 2010. Since then, he’s had stints as a resident academic, studying public policy as a self-described resident academic at Google and Pandora. Hall began his policy work at Uber in 2014, where he has been applying the skills he gained as a Ph.D. student to an increasingly complex policy landscape.

The Redwood City resident has caught the eye of government officials as well. On Monday, Nov. 21, he was tapped to join California Treasurer John Chiang’s Council of Economic Advisors. He attended his first meeting on Tuesday, where council members forecasted California’s economic trends in 2017.

Hall is slated to contribute valuable insight into California’s growing technology sector and sharing economy, in particular the growth in people who use labor platforms to do work.

He has had plenty of practice. In January 2015, he co-authored a working paper with Princeton University economist Alan Krueger, where he and Krueger shed light on the reasons for the exponential growth in Uber drivers. Their analysis found that the pay Uber drivers take home doesn’t vary much with the number of hours they work, opening opportunities for full- or part-time workers to add working hours and income into their schedules as needed.

“While unemployment is low, people are looking for additional work. Historically, it hasn’t been easy to find five to 10 extra hours of work per week,” he said. “Apps like Uber and Lyft have given people the ability to chunk work into small pieces that fit into anyone’s schedule.”

Some of their findings led to important insights for Hall as he thinks about the perspectives he can bring to Chiang’s council.

“I have a lot to tell [the council] about the growth of platforms in tech. I happen to know about ride-sharing and also follow other platforms. The people [using these platforms] are paying additional income taxes to the state, so I’ll look at how to continue to grow the tech space in all kinds of work.”

The desire to share and apply economic analysis with a wider audience started at an early age for Hall, who grew up in a family of economists.

“I’ve always been interested in economics in general,” he said. “When I started teaching, I decided to focus on teaching non-economists important facts about economic policy.”

Hall’s curiosity about emerging work opportunities extends into his experience as a resident of Redwood City. He makes a point to chat with drivers on his own trips to better understand their motivations for signing up to drive. Many of the drivers he has spoken with are retirees, and he sees the app increasing options for residents in need of a ride and those looking for part-time work.

“In places like Redwood City, Uber can be a less formal [work] opportunity for local residents, halfway between work and past-time. In [less urban] places, it doesn’t make sense for someone to be a full-time driver. If you work part-time, though, it might actually be convenient for you.”

anna@smdailyjournal.com

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