Hadi Kahalzadeh is a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute and a research fellow at the Center for Global Development and Sustainability at Brandeis University. As a welfare economist, he served as a research fellow at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies from 2017 to 2025, where he studied the political economy of U.S.–Iran policy and the social welfare effects of economic sanctions across Iran and the broader Middle East and North Africa.

His work explores poverty, inequality, healthcare utilization, food insecurity, social security, social protection systems, and resilience in the face of macroeconomic shocks. Dr. Kahalzadeh earned a Ph.D. in social policy and an M.A. in sustainable international development from Brandeis University, an M.A. in energy economics from Islamic Azad University, and a B.A. in economics from Allameh Tabataba’i University. Before his academic career, he spent eight years as an economist at Iran’s Social Security Organization, analyzing the impacts of Iran’s economic and social policies and U.S. sanctions on the country’s welfare system. His research has been featured in Foreign Affairs, Responsible Statecraft, The Guardian, and Middle East Eye.