Jesse Rothstein

Jesse Rothstein is a professor of public policy and economics in the Department of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and director of the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. He has served as a senior economist for the Council of Economic Advisers and as chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor. He serves on the boards of the Society of Labor Economists and the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. His research focuses on education and tax policy, particularly how public institutions mitigate or reinforce the effects of family background on children’s academic and economic outcomes. He has conducted studies on teacher evaluation, the value of school infrastructure spending, affirmative action in college and graduate school admissions, and the causes and consequences of racial segregation. His work has been published in American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Public Economics, Chicago Law Review, and American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. Rothstein earned his MPP and PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

updated 2025