Michael Best is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Columbia University. Michael's research focuses on tax evasion in developing countries and its implications for optimal tax policy and administration; the determinants of the effectiveness of public procurement in developing countries and the design of policies to improve it; and the effects of tax policy in developed countries and the design of optimal tax policies. Prior to joining Columbia, Michael was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. Michael holds a PhD from the LSE and an M.Phil from the University of Oxford.