Jeffrey Smith is Professor of Economics at the University of Wisconsin. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago in 1996. Prior to joining the Wisconsin faculty he taught at the University of Michigan from 2005-2017, at the University of Maryland from 2001-2005 and at the University of Western Ontario from 1994-2001.

His research centers on methods for the evaluation of social programs such as job training for the disadvantaged. He has also written papers examining the labor market effects of university quality and the use of statistical treatment rules to assign persons to government programs. Recent publications include "Substitution and Dropout Bias in Social Experiments: A Study of An Influential Social Experiment" (with James Heckman, Neil Hohmann and Michael Khoo), Quarterly Journal of Economics 2000, "The Economics and Econometrics of Active Labor Market Programmes" (with James Heckman and Robert LaLonde) in the Handbook of Labor Economics, Volume 3A 1999, and "The Pre-Programme Earnings Dip and the Determinants of Participation in a Social Programme: Implications for Simple Programme Evaluation Strategies" (with James Heckman), Economic Journal 1999 (winner of Royal Economic Society prize for article in the Economic Journal in 1999).

He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in October 1999.