Jesse Rothstein is professor of public policy and economics at the University of California, Berkeley, with affiliations in the Department of Economics and the Goldman School of Public Policy. He is also the faculty director of the California Policy Lab at Berkeley. 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, both in the Obama Administration. His research focuses on education policy and on the labor market. His recent work includes studies of teacher quality and of the effects of Unemployment Insurance during the Great Recession. His work has been published in leading journals in economics, public policy, education, and law.

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 research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research; a fellow of the National Education Policy Center; and a member of the Board of Editors of the American Economic Review and of Industrial Relations. He was named the John T. Dunlop Outstanding Scholar by the Labor and Employment Relations Association in 2011.

He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in November 2014.