Makoto Nakajima

Makoto Nakajima is vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. He leads the monetary and macroeconomics section of the Research Department. His main research areas are macroeconomics and computational methods. In particular, he is interested in how monetary and other economic policies affect diverse individuals differently, and thus how these policies interact with income and wealth inequality.

His articles have appeared in leading economics and finance journals, including Econometrica, the Journal of Finance, and the Journal of Monetary Economics. Recently, Makoto worked on how monetary policy affects individuals with different levels of income and wealth, and individuals from different racial groups, and how to think about inclusive monetary policy. He has also published research on the role home equity and medical expenses play in retirees’ savings.

Makoto has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of Tokyo. Prior to joining the Bank, he was an assistant professor of economics at the University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign.