David Lagakos is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of California San Diego. Previously, he has worked as an Assistant Professor of Economics at Arizona State University from 2009 to 2013. Before that he was a research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. His research focuses on economic growth, productivity, human capital and labor markets. Recent research focuses on the determinants of experience-earnings profiles across countries using household survey data from the cross-section of countries and data on the earnings of immigrants to the United States from abroad.

He received a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Rochester in 2001, a M.A. in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2005, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California Los Angeles in 2008.