Jacob R. Smith
Ph.D. Candidate in Economics, Middle Tennessee State University — 2026 Graduate Fellow, American Institute for Economic Research
My work asks a single question across very different settings: when does regulation actually serve the public interest, and when is it better understood as protection for incumbents, a tool of bureaucratic expansion, or a substitute for the order that markets and communities already provide?
Working Papers
Works in Progress
About
A Ph.D. candidate in economics at Middle Tennessee State University's Jones College of Business, expecting to graduate May 2027. Summer 2026 Graduate Fellow at AIER; Summer 2024 and 2025 Fellow with MTSU's Political Economy Research Institute. My dissertation examines how policy interacts with individual and institutional behavior when the stakes involve credibility, safety, stability, and freedom.
My academic career began at Hampden-Sydney College, graduating magna cum laude in 2023 with a B.S. in Mathematical Economics and a second major in Philosophy — an interdisciplinary foundation that shapes the toolkit I bring to teaching and research. Learn more on my C.V., Teaching, and Research pages.