Angie Jo is a Ph.D. candidate in political economy at MIT. Her dissertation research examines differences in how wealthy democratic countries insure themselves against the risk of large collective crises—such as financial crisis, COVID-19, and climate change-induced natural disasters—and recover from their aftermath. Her research also looks at how societies conceive of the proper role of the state in protecting public welfare; what relationship this has with the design of their welfare state; and in what moments the meaning of “welfare” itself might change.
Jo holds a Masters in city planning from MIT, there her work focused on master-planned cities and industrial policy in China and South Korea. Prior to MIT, she worked in macroeconomics research and investment at Bridgewater Associates and earned an A.B. summa cum laude in architecture studies from Harvard, where her thesis on Brutalist civic buildings won the Hoopes and Bowdoin essay prizes. She is a recipient of the Homer A. Burnell Presidential Graduate Fellowship at MIT and the 2022-2025 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Doctoral Scholarship.
