Justin Grana

Associate Economist; Professor, Pardee RAND Graduate School

Off Site Office

Education

Ph.D. in economics, American University; B.S. in economics, Xavier University; B.A. in Spanish, Xavier University

Overview

Justin Grana is an associate economist at the RAND Corporation and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. He works on projects concerning cyber deterrence, game theory and applied econometrics and machine learning.

Grana earned his Ph.D. in economics at American University where he focused on applying game theory to computer network security issues. He then completed his post-doc at the Santa Fe Institute where he worked on integrating game theory, reinforcement learning and stochastic processes to improve computer network attack detection.

Research Focus

Publications

Research Brief
The Department of Defense's Posture for Artificial Intelligence: Assessment and Recommendations for Improvement
In this report, RAND Corporation researchers assess the state of artificial intelligence relevant to the U.S. Department of Defense and provide recommendations for the future of the department's artificial intelligence posture.
Jan 26, 2021
Report
Findings on Mosaic Warfare from a Colonel Blotto Game
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is investigating a concept of war known as Mosaic warfare, after the analogy of creating a complex image from many small pieces. The authors study Mosaic warfare through the use of a Colonel Blotto game.
Jan 5, 2021
Report
Benchmarking Data Use and Analytics in Large, Complex Private-Sector Organizations: Implications for Department of Defense Acquisition
This report examines how the private sector addresses data governance and analytics to inform how the Department of Defense can develop and apply advanced analytics to acquisition challenges.
Jun 4, 2020
Draft
The Benefits of Fractionation in Competitive Resource Allocation
Leverages a new algorithm for numerically solving Colonel Blotto games to gain insight into a version of the game where players have different types of resources.
Feb 14, 2020
Research Brief
Systemic Risk: It's Not Just in the Financial Sector
After a decade of focus on financial firms, new analysis using an innovative approach and new dataset shows that firms in a diverse range of sectors, such as technology and telecommunications, pose a systemic risk to the economy at large.
Feb 3, 2020
Report
Systemic Risk in the Broad Economy: Interfirm Networks and Shocks in the U.S. Economy
Following the 2008 financial crisis, little attention was paid to systemic risks in the economy at large. The authors of this report address that gap, finding evidence that systemic risk extends beyond the financial sector.
Jan 21, 2020
Report
The Department of Defense Posture for Artificial Intelligence: Assessment and Recommendations
In this report, the authors assess the state of artificial intelligence (AI) relevant to DoD, conduct an independent assessment of the Department of Defense's posture in AI, and put forth a set of recommendations to enhance that posture.
Dec 17, 2019
Draft
Cyber Deterrence or: How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Signal
Examines new approaches to traditional cyber deterrence.
Sep 4, 2019