Charles F. Sabel is an expert in economics and social organization who teaches courses on public-sector problem solving, rebuilding government, catastrophe-avoiding regulation, European Union governance, and contracts and collaboration.

A former MacArthur Prize Fellow, he studies effectiveness and accountability in government and private and nonprofit institutions. His work has explored policing and child protective services, special education outcomes in Finland, and offshore oil drilling in Norway. Along with frequent collaborator Professor William H. Simon, he favors an institutional change approach called “experimentalism,” which emphasizes local initiative and central oversight designed to assess performance and pool information about best practices.

Sabel previously was part of a team of Columbia Law School professors awarded a grant by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to study innovation in contract design.