Ragui Assaad is Professor of Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. He holds a Ph.D. degree in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University and a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. He is a non-resident senior fellow at the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution (U.S.A.) and a Research Fellow of the Economic Research Forum (Egypt). He served as Regional Director for West Asia and North Africa for the Population Council, based in Cairo, Egypt, from 2005 to 2008. His current research focuses on labor markets in the Arab World, with a focus on youth and gender issues as they relate to education, transition from school-to-work, employment, migration, and family formation.

He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in April 2013.