Sojourner is a labor economist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. His research focuses on three areas: (1) effects of labor-market institutions on economic productivity and in politics, (2) policies to promote efficient and equitable development of human capital with a focus on early childhood and K-12 education systems, and (3) behavioral economic approaches to consumer financial decisions.

He serves on the Industrial and Labor Relations Review (ILRR) international editorial board. In 2016, he received the John T. Dunlop Scholar Award from the U.S. Labor and Employment Relations Association, which recognizes emerging scholars for outstanding research contributions to issues of national significance.

Sojourner has a wide range of policy experience and community service. He took leave for the 2016-'17 academic year and spent the year in Washington, D.C. serving as senior economist for labor at the U.S. President’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) for Presidents Obama and Trump. He has also served as policy fellow with the U.S. Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and in other policy roles.

He joined IZA as a research affiliate in September 2009 and became an IZA Research Fellow in January 2013. He received his Ph.D. in economics and a certificate in education sciences from Northwestern University in 2009, M.P.P. from the University of Chicago in 2003, and B.A. in history from Yale University in 1995.