Olugbenga "Gbenga" Ajilore ( ) is an American economist who is a senior advisor in the Office of the

Under Secretary for Rural Development The Under Secretary for Rural Development (USDA(RD)) is a high-ranking official in the United States Department of Agriculture and principal advisor to the United States Secretary of Agriculture responsible for oversight of the department's rural ...

at the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...

. Prior to his current role, he was a senior economist at the

Center for American Progress The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a public policy research and advocacy organization which presents a liberal viewpoint on economic and social issues. It has its headquarters in Washington, D.C. The president and chief executive officer ...

and former associate professor of economics at the

University of Toledo The University of Toledo (UToledo or UT) is a public research university in Toledo, Ohio. It is the northernmost campus of the University System of Ohio. The university also operates a Health Science campus, which includes the University of T ...

. He is a past president of the

National Economic Association The National Economic Association (NEA) is a learned society established in 1969, focused on initiatives in the field of economics. The purposes of the Association are "to promote the professional lives of minorities within the profession. In a ...

and is a frequent media commentator on the labor market, particularly for Black Americans.

Education and early life

Ajilore grew up in the city of

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...

and attended Polytechnic School (California), before earning a B.A. in applied mathematics and economics from the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

and a PhD in economics from the

Claremont Graduate University The Claremont Graduate University (CGU) is a private, all-graduate research university in Claremont, California. Founded in 1925, CGU is a member of the Claremont Colleges which includes five undergraduate (Pomona College, Claremont McKenna Co ...

Career

Ajilore was an assistant and associate professor at the University of Toledo from 2003 to 2018. During this period, he conducted research on tax policy and peer social networks, as well as racial bias and policing, particularly the use of lethal and nonlethal physical force by police and police militarization. Since joining the Center for American Progress in 2018, much of his work has focused on the economy of rural America.

Selected research publications

* Ajilore, Olugbenga. "The militarization of local law enforcement: is race a factor?." Applied Economics Letters 22, no. 13 (2015): 1089–1093. * Ali, Mir M., and Olugbenga Ajilore. "Can marriage reduce risky health behavior for African-Americans?." Journal of Family and Economic Issues 32, no. 2 (2011): 191–203. * Ajilore, Olugbenga, and John Smith. "Ethnic fragmentation and police spending." Applied Economics Letters 18, no. 4 (2011): 329–332. * Ajilore, Olugbenga, Aliaksandr Amialchuk, and Keven Egan. "Alcohol consumption by youth: peers, parents, or prices?." Economics & Human Biology 23 (2016): 76–83. * Ajilore, Olugbenga. "Identifying peer effects using spatial analysis: the role of peers on risky sexual behavior." Review of Economics of the Household 13, no. 3 (2015): 635–652.

References

External links

* STRENGTHENING OUR FISCAL TOOLKIT: POLICY OPTIONS TO IMPROVE ECONOMIC RESILIENCY, Committee on the Budget, U.S. House of Representatives, Testimony by Olugbenga Ajilore, Ph.D., Senior Economist, Center for American Progress, October 16, 2019, https://budget.house.gov/sites/democrats.budget.house.gov/files/documents/Ajilore_Testimony.pdf African-American economists Labor economists Public economists Claremont Graduate University alumni UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people University of Toledo faculty United States Department of Agriculture officials Presidents of the National Economic Association 21st-century African-American people {{US-economist-stub