Patel is codirector of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and a senior fellow in the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. She also serves as an external senior economist for Alterra Property Group, where she advises on machine learning initiatives. She previously served as the Sorenson Assistant Professor in the Division of Quantitative Analysis of Markets and Organizations at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business.

Patel’s research examines how public policy—through tax systems, health programs, the social safety net, and governance structures—shapes economic behavior and well-being. She studies how tax policies influence investment and capital accumulation, including work on the design of optimal tax systems. She also explores how workers make employment decisions in the face of changing incentives and risks, how organizational leadership and governance affect firms and their workers, and how health policy, including the role of hospitals and health shocks, spill over into labor markets. Across these areas, her work highlights the ways policies interact with both economic opportunity and economic security. Patel earned a BS with distinction in economics (with honors) and mathematics, with a minor in modern Greek studies, and an MA and PhD in economics, all from the University of Michigan.