Stephanie Johnson

Stephanie Johnson is an Assistant Professor of Finance at Rice University’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business in the Business & Economics faculty. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Northwestern University (2019), with a dissertation titled Essays in Household Finance advised by Matthias Doepke, Martin Eichenbaum, John Mondragon, and Lorenz Kueng; an M.A. in Economics from Northwestern University (2014); and a Bachelor of Economics with First Class Honours from the University of Tasmania (2010), for which she received the University Medal. Prior to graduate school, she held positions at the Reserve Bank of Australia: Senior Analyst in the Financial Stability Department (2013), Analyst in Financial Stability (2012–2013), Economist in the Economic Research Department (2011–2012), and Cadet (2009–2010). At Rice since 2019, she previously worked as Research Assistant for Professors Scott Baker and Lorenz Kueng at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management (2015–2018) and Teaching Assistant at Northwestern (2014–2015).

Johnson specializes in household finance, empirical macroeconomics, and real estate. Her publications include “Regulating Household Leverage” with Anthony DeFusco and John Mondragon (The Review of Economic Studies, 2020); “Shopping for Lower Sales Tax Rates” with Scott Baker and Lorenz Kueng (American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 2021); and “Financial Returns to Household Inventory Management” with Baker and Kueng (Journal of Financial Economics, 2024; Editor’s Choice). Working papers cover “The Hidden Effects of Climate Risk: Rising Insurance Premiums Increase Mortgage Delinquency,” “Financial Technology and the 1990s Housing Boom,” “Mortgage Leverage and House Prices,” and “The Effect of Mortgage Regulation on Entrepreneurship.” Awards include the AREUEA Dissertation Award (2019), CEPR Household Finance Network Student Prize (2018), Kauffman Dissertation Fellowship (2018), MFA and AFA Student Travel Grants (2018), Cubist Systematic Strategies Ph.D. Candidate Award (2017), and 2024 Fellow of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s Center for Advancing Women in Economics. She has presented at conferences such as AEA Annual Meeting, SED Annual Meeting, AREUEA National Conference, WFA Annual Meeting, and European Conference on Household Finance, and referees for journals including Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Review of Economic Studies, and Journal of Money, Credit and Banking.

Professional Email: stephanie.g.johnson@rice.edu