Theodore Naff

Theodore Naff is a PhD candidate in economics at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research addresses questions at the center of contemporary economic statecraft: how should policymakers respond to China’s financing of global trade infrastructure, what does the dollar’s dominance mean for the future of currency blocs like the eurozone, and how should government insure workers against disruptions from global integration? His dissertation develops quantitative models of international trade and macroeconomics, combined with project-level and confidential U.S. Census Bureau data, to answer these questions—examining the strategic logic of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the economics of currency unions in a dollar-dominated world, and labor market adjustment to trade shocks. Theo holds an MA and a BA in economics from McGill University. His work has been supported by the Russell Sage Foundation and a Federal Reserve Board dissertation fellowship, and he will join the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond as an AEA Summer Fellow in 2026. He previously held research positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the World Bank Group.