Andrew B. Hall

About

Andrew B. Hall, senior fellow by courtesy for the 2022–23 academic year, is a professor of political economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, with a joint appointment in the Stanford University Political Science Department. At Stanford, he is also a senior fellow at the Institute for Economic Policy Research and a member of the Center for Blockchain Research.

Professor Hall’s research centers on how to build better-functioning systems of governance. Hall’s research team collects large-scale datasets on elections, voter and political behavior, and policy outcomes, which they combine with tools from econometrics, statistics, and machine learning to understand how different designs for political systems lead to better or worse outcomes. Hall has published a wide range of academic articles on topics including legislative polarization, term limits, campaign finance, and election administration laws. Hall’s book, Who Wants to Run?, presents evidence that Congress has become polarized because more pragmatic and moderate citizens are losing their interest in becoming politicians. 

Along with this research, Hall works at the intersection of tech and society, advising tech companies, startups, blockchain protocols, and others on how to make better and more socially legitimate decisions, products, and policies. This includes work to design and build online governance systems—demonstrating how algorithms, rules, rule-making procedures, appeals processes, and institutions shape the ways people and communities use tech products and how they affect society. He is particularly active in the web3 space, where he works on fundamental challenges to implementing decentralized governance for blockchain protocols and large online platforms. 

Hall received his BA in classics and economics from Stanford University. He holds an AM in statistics and a PhD in political science from Harvard University.