Dr. Hastings is the Founding Director of RIPL and currently serves as the RIPL Board Chair. She is an Affiliate Professor of Economics at the University of Washington, the Chief of Human-Centered Science at Amazon, and a Faculty Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research. Her research expertise spans Industrial Organization, Public Economics, and Behavioral Economics.

She has conducted academic research on topics such as market structure and competition, environment and energy regulation, advertising and consumer protection, consumer financial markets, health care, social safety-net programs, and markets for higher education. Her research employs diverse empirical techniques including field experiments, survey analysis, machine learning, predictive analytics, analysis of large administrative datasets, and structural demand and supply estimation.

Her research was cited in the 2017 Nobel Prize scientific background materials implications, and has been used to shape public policy improvements around the world, including North Carolina, Rhode Island, Chile, and Mexico. She has also served as an expert advisor on the Academic Research Council to the United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.