Rachel Meltzer
Rachel Meltzer is the Plimpton Associate Professor of Planning and Urban Economics at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. Her research is broadly concerned with urban economies and how market and policy forces can shape disparate outcomes across neighborhoods. She focuses on issues related to economic development, housing, land use, and local public finance.
Dr. Meltzer’s current research explores how economic and institutional “shocks” impact retail and commercial activity and real estate markets in urban neighborhoods. These “shocks” range from gentrification to the introduction of broadband to Superstorm Sandy. Dr. Meltzer is also interested in the private provision of public goods, and she has explored a number of questions related to Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and Homeowners Associations (HOAs) about their formation and impacts on housing markets and public services. In addition, she has conducted extensive research on Inclusionary Zoning, an alternative to traditional methods of providing affordable housing, including its impact on local housing markets and the political economy behind the adoption of such policies.
Her work sits at the intersection of urban economics and planning and has been published in top policy, economics and urban planning and urban studies journals. Dr. Meltzer has also authored the textbook, Policy Analysis as Problem Solving (Routledge 2018), which provides an interdisciplinary and pragmatic approach to evidence-based decision making for addressing public problems. Dr. Meltzer earned her doctorate in Public Policy and M.P.A. from New York University and a B.A. in Psychology and Mathematics from Dartmouth College.