Max Whitford (publishes as Maximillian B. Whitford) is a Master of Public Administration student at the University of Georgia (expected 2028) and a Research Fellow at the Free Systems Lab at Stanford GSB, where he works on AI governance. He holds a B.A. in Economics from UGA (2026, Phi Beta Kappa). His research sits at the intersection of nonmarket strategy, American political institutions, and law and economics. It asks two linked questions: how firms form beliefs about their regulatory environment and decide whether to comply, and how public institutions, constrained by their administrative capacity, form beliefs about firms and shape the legal environment in response. His empirical work uses state statutes, campaign finance and advertising data, and firm compliance behavior, with methods including text analysis, time-series econometrics, and difference-in-differences designs. His coauthors include David Mustard, Jamie Carson, and Andrew Whitford. He plans to pursue a Ph.D. in business or economics.