Semih Tumen is a Professor of Economics at TED University. He is also an Advisor to the Human Resources Office of Turkish Presidency; Consultant at World Bank; Research Fellow at the Economic Research Forum (ERF, Cairo/Egypt); Research Affiliate at the Households in Conflict Network (HiCN, Berlin/Germany); and Academic Editor at PLOS ONE. He received his PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago in 2012, MSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2006, and BSc in Economics from the Middle East Technical University in 2000. He served as the Director General of Economic Research at the Central Bank of Turkey from 2016 to 2018.

His research concentrates on Labor Economics with a special focus on job search, human capital, migration/refugees, and social networks. His current interest is mainly on investigating the education, labor market, and product market consequences of the refugee problem. He has also worked on several labor-related issues including active labor market policies, vocational education/training, compulsory military service, informal employment, minimum wages, inequality, entrepreneurship, neighborhood formation, social interactions/networks, returns to education, intergenerational mobility, and subjective well-being.

His research has been published in the American Economic Review, Journal of Development Economics, Economics of Education Review, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Review of Income and Wealth, Journal of Population Economics, Journal of Economic Inequality, Economics Letters, International Journal of Manpower, The Economics of Transition, Journal of Happiness Studies, Journal of Productivity Analysis, Journal of Housing Economics, The World Economy, International Journal of Economic Theory, Industrial Relations, IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Energy Economics, Food Policy, Demographic Research, Social Indicators Research, Singapore Economic Review, Economic Modelling, Labour, and other journals.

He is the recipient of the 2017 Kuznets Prize.

He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in September 2015.