John Fallon

John Fallon is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Annenberg Institute at Brown University. He is a labor economist who studies how labor markets shape who enters teaching, how workers build skills on the job, and how hiring actually happens.

At Annenberg, John's work connects rigorous causal and structural evidence to the practical decisions districts and states face. He came to Annenberg because it takes both halves of that sentence seriously: the evidence has to be credible, and it has to reach the people who use it.

His research spans three areas. One strand examines teacher labor markets and peer effects, asking how teachers learn from their colleagues and what that means for how schools staff classrooms. A second studies occupational licensing, including how competing licensed professions shape access to services. A third looks at hiring in online platform markets, where algorithms increasingly mediate the match between workers and firms. Across all three, the common thread is a focus on the institutions and frictions that determine who gets opportunities to work, learn, and thrive.

John earned his PhD in economics from Boston University in 2026, where he was advised by Kevin Lang.