Credit: Bryce Vickmark
I’m a PhD candidate in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, working on local tax policy, housing, and economic development.
I work on cities because they are basic units for economic growth and they fund public goods, which are generally hard to produce. My research focuses on rules—like local taxes and regulations—that better sustain those things.
A proposal I developed in Detroit, dubbed the “Land Value Tax Plan,” was covered in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and The Economist. It got useful feedback from the Chicago Federal Reserve, the Niskanen Center, and a few senior economists.
Before my PhD, I worked at the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, where I built data systems and negotiated terms for new investments. Before that, I worked on satellite sensing of urban growth in South Asia and foreign real estate investment in Malaysia. I have a master’s in city planning from MIT and a BA from Yale. I was raised in Minnesota, obviously.
MIT exists to make knowledge useful, and being inside it has taught me about how decentralized organizations develop better rules over time. I received the 2025 Karl Taylor Compton Prize, MIT’s highest student honor. During my PhD, I’ve had support and wise counsel from collaborators at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the Kresge Foundation, and the Hudson-Webber Foundation.
Contact: nballen at mit
Selected Research
Policy design and economic modeling for property tax reform to reduce foreclosures and encourage development.