Weber Named to 'TIME100 Next'

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University of Massachusetts Amherst economist Isabella Weber has been named to the 2023 “TIME100 Next” list of emerging leaders from around the world. Weber is known internationally for her research on systemically important prices, strategic price stabilization and what she calls “sellers’ inflation” – the ability of firms with market power to hike prices and boost profits in an emergency.

Weber, an associate professor of economics at UMass Amherst, first gained international attention in late 2021 when she authored an op-ed for The Guardian explaining how the history of strategic price controls could inform the fight against inflation brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, her intervention sharply divided the economic community and Weber faced a wave of blistering online harassment. However, as inflation persisted and it became clear after the Russian attack on Ukraine that inflation could not be stabilized by increasing interest rates alone, many critics eventually came to embrace Weber’s views. Ultimately, her policy proposals informed Germany’s gas price stabilization policy and her contributions helped shift the inflation debate as chronicled in The New Yorker.

Read the full article on UMass Amherst News & Events.