David McMillon is an assistant professor of economics at Emory University. Working in stratification economics, he combines formal models, simulation, and quasi-experimental evidence to find "fairness arbitrage" opportunities, where appropriate policy changes in institutional processes can improve equity and efficiency simultaneously. As AI expands, an increasingly common example is an institution whose decisions shape the data its future decisions rely on. David’s job market paper exemplifies this using the policy changes that ended Stop-and-Frisk in New York City. His research spans algorithmic fairness, education, crime policy, reparations and wealth inequality, the political economy of reparative reforms, and formal models of systemic discrimination. David’s work has been funded by the Spencer Foundation, the American Educational Research Association, and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. It also has been used by Maryland’s State Department of Education, the American Medical Association, and the U.S. Commission on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys, as well as in federal litigation involving the ACLU.

David received his doctoral degree at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy, and he holds Master’s degrees from the University of Michigan in Applied Mathematics and in Industrial and Operations Engineering. He is passionate about teaching a wide range of methods classes in mathematics, economics, and statistics, and has designed several original courses spanning mathematics for public policy, algorithmic fairness, and the economics of systemic racism. Beyond the university, David is affiliated with the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank, the Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility, and the Samuel Dubois Cook Center for Racial Equity.

Ph.D., Public Policy
University of Chicago 
Dissertation Title: The School-to-Prison Pipeline: 
Three Essays on the Policy Implications of Systems Thinking 
Committee: Stephen Raudenbush (Co-Chair), Steven Durlauf (Co-Chair), Kerwin Charles, Susan Levine, Michael Dinerstein 
2021

M.S. Applied Mathematics
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 
2014 

M.S. Industrial and Operations Engineering,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 
2014 

B.S. Mathematics
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 
2012