Economist · Washington, D.C.
Philip A. Luck
Economic research on trade and economic security.
- NowDirector, Economics Program, and Scholl Chair in International Business, Center for Strategic and International Studies
- BeforeDeputy Chief Economist, U.S. Department of State, 2022–25
- EditorAssociate Editor, Journal of Geoeconomics
With Secretary Blinken at the U.S. Department of State, 2024. Photo: U.S. Department of State.
Research and analysis cited in
The New York TimesFinancial TimesThe EconomistBloombergThe Washington PostPoliticoNPRCNBCCNNAbout
I study what trade, investment, and migration do to firms and workers, and how those effects change once governments treat commerce as an instrument of security. My research has appeared in the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of Labor Economics, and the Journal of Economic Geography.
At the State Department I was Deputy Chief Economist from 2022 to 2025, and Acting Chief Economist from late 2023 into 2024. I led analysis on sanctions and export-control evasion, supply-chain resilience, economic coercion, and the design of migration policy. Before government I taught at Claremont McKenna College, the University of Colorado Denver, and Drexel University. My Ph.D. is from the University of California, Davis.
Selected research
Recent writing
- Sep 2026How Central Banks Can Win the Digital Currency RaceCSIS report
- Aug 2026What Happens if Congress Codifies Russia Sanctions?CSIS
- Jul 2026Elbows Up: The Price of Economic Coercion Against CanadaCSIS
- Jul 2026America's Unproven Productivity Boom, and the Cost of Misreading the DataCSIS
- May 2026Bitter Harvest: Diagnosing and Deterring Chinese Coercive Agricultural Trade RestrictionsCSIS report
Contact
For research, policy, and media inquiries, send a note.