William J. Congdon

William J. Congdon is an economist focused on issues in labor market policy and poverty and inequality, with an emphasis on the use of experimentation and the application of insights from behavioral economics to inform policy design. He is currently a Senior Fellow in the Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population at the Urban Institute.

He was formerly the Chief Economist at the nonprofit organization ideas42. He previously served as a Senior Economist for labor and behavioral economics at the Council of Economic Advisers. Prior to CEA, he served as a Fellow and founding member of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Team, an Obama Administration initiative dedicated to translating insights from behavioral economics into improvements in Federal policies. He has previously worked as a Research Director in the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University.