Jesse Rothstein

Professor of Public Policy and Economics; Carmel P. Friesen Chair in Public Policy; David Gardner Chair in Higher Education

Dept of Economics

Goldman School of Public Policy

Faculty URL

http://jesse-rothstein.com

Contact

rothstein@berkeley.edu

(510) 495-0646

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ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6140-0858

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Research Bio

Jesse Rothstein is Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he holds the Carmel P. Friesen Chair in Public Policy and the David Pierpont Gardner Chair in Higher Education. He is the co-director of the California Policy Lab, which he co-founded (with Till von Wachter) in 2017, and the director of the Center for Studies in Higher Education. He previously served as Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor and as Senior Economist with the Council of Economic Advisers, Executive Office of the President. From 2015-2020, he was director of the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) at UC Berkeley.

Rothstein’s research examines education policy, tax and transfer policy, and the labor market. His recent work includes studies of school finance, intergenerational economic mobility, take-up of safety net benefits, and regional and industry wage differentials. His work has been published in leading journals in economics, public policy, education, and law. He has served as an expert witness in several cases regarding teacher evaluation and school finance.

Rothstein received a Ph.D. in economics and a Masters in Public Policy, both from the University of California, Berkeley, and an A.B. from Harvard. He is a member of the editorial boards of Industrial Relations, the Review of Economics and Statistics, Education Finance and Policy, and the National Education Policy Center, and of the executive board of the Society of Labor Economists. He is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a fellow of the National Education Policy Center, the CESifo Research Network, the IZA, and the Learning Policy Institute.

Research Expertise and Interest

labor economics, inequality, education policy, unemployment, tax policy, local public finance, teacher quality, segregation, economics of education, labor market, public impact research/scholarship, research practice partnership, partnership research, higher education

In the News

A women shopping in a grocery store shopping with a cart and a wall of beverages in the background.

Student Use of State Food Aid Widespread, and Increasing, Says New Berkeley Report

One in 10 California community college and University of California students receives food aid through the state’s CalFresh program, with the numbers markedly higher in expensive regions such as San Francisco and in lower income areas, says a new UC Berkeley report.

Students in masks work at tables in Doe Libary's North Reading room on the first day of classes, fall 2021.

Simplifying Financial Aid Letters Pays Big Dividends, Says Berkeley Study

A new policy brief released today by the California Policy Lab (CPL) and the People Lab at UC Berkeley shows that making simple changes to Cal Grant financial aid award letters significantly increased the number of California high school students who registered for an online account, a key first step for receiving the grant.

headshots of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

California fears human, economic crisis as Washington relief talks continue

High-stakes negotiations underway in Washington, D.C., over a new round of pandemic relief funding could help California to achieve a relatively quick recovery — or, if they fail, contribute to an economic slump that lasts for years, UC Berkeley scholars say.

a black man walks down the street in new york city

COVID-19 shows fraying U.S. safety net, Berkeley scholars say

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented levels of unemployment and economic uncertainty, and despite strong government efforts to address human needs, continued support and bold policy are essential for the months ahead, top scholars said during a recent event at UC Berkeley.

COVID-19: Economic impact, human solutions

The COVID-19 pandemic is confronting every level of the U.S. economy with an unprecedented challenge, and the government must mount a sustained, ambitious economic response lasting months and perhaps years, UC Berkeley economists said in an online forum today.

An empty Chicago streetscape during the COVID-19 shutdown

COVID-19 stimulus is a good start, but more is needed, says Berkeley economist

Lawmakers in Washington, D.C., have taken strong first steps to provide economic support to businesses and their workers suffering from COVID-19-related shutdowns and unemployment, said Jesse Rothstein, UC Berkeley professor of public policy and economics. But Rothstein advised that more will be needed to protect vulnerable small businesses and employees from the impact of the pandemic.

migrant workers carry bushels of onions in a field

Coronavirus response a ‘vast experiment’ that’s changing U.S. workplaces

While health leaders and policymakers race to limit the spread of COVID-19, the emerging crisis is having a dramatic impact on millions of healthy Americans — in restaurants, offices, taxicabs, classrooms and other places where they work.

Research initiative launched on health in working families

A new research hub based at UC Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in Washington, D.C., will explore the health effects of income and workplace policies.

New Opportunity Lab to focus on policy for poverty, inequality

If anything can save the country from its current political dysfunction, it is “good, policy-oriented research,” Christina Romer, a UC Berkeley economist and former chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Featured in the Media

Please note: The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or positions of UC Berkeley.

October 5, 2020

Cal Professors Lead Poverty Study

San Francisco Chronicle

Bay City News Service

Three University of California, Berkeley professors will lead the work to create new datasets to better understand poverty and mobility with the help of a $2 million grant. "By constructing these datasets and making them available to a wide array of researchers, we will unlock a generation's worth of new policy research," said professor Jesse Rothstein, co-lead researcher on the project, in a statement. Also leading the project are professors Hilary Hoynes and Steven Raphael. Researchers throughout the University of California system and others will take part in the work.

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January 7, 2020

Don't root for a recession to knock out Trump

Washington Post

Catherine Rampell

Economics professor Jesse Rothstein has some cold water to throw on anyone wishing a recession would come along to help evict President Trump from office. "We see over and over again that recessions are worse than we thought," he says. In a working paper he published last year, he wrote about the long-term consequences of the Great Recession, which included young college graduates doing worse in the job market than models of recession would have predicted, with their employment rates far behind those of older students who'd graduated into stronger economies. "It's a once-in-a-generation thing to get this tight a labor market," he says, "and you want to let it rip for as long as it can."

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