Johann Caro-Burnett

Johann Caro-Burnett is a 2026–2027 Visiting Faculty Fellow at The Murphy Institute’s Center for Ethics and an Associate Professor at Hiroshima University. He holds a PhD in Economics from Yale University and teaches public economics and causal inference. His work combines empirical analysis and formal theory to study how institutions (such as social norms and formal legal rules) shape incentives, behavior, and economic outcomes.

Professor Caro-Burnett’s research examines how institutional rules operate on the ground. Rather than treating institutions as immutable background conditions, he models them as strategic environments with informational frictions, thresholds, and incentives that shape behavior in subtle ways. Using causal designs and formal theory, he shows how small policy details, such as cutoffs, timing rules, and enforcement asymmetries, can affect behavior, reverse incentives, or disadvantage compliant players even when institutions appear inclusive.