Adriana Kugler is a Colombian/American economist and a professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. Her research interests include labor markets and policy evaluation in developed and developing countries. She studies labor regulations, unemployment and immigration, and has recently authored articles on public health insurance, the effects of TRAP (Targeted Restrictions on Abortion Providers) laws on women’s employment prospects, and the impact of robots on employment in the tropics.

Previously, Kugler served as chief economist of the U.S. Department of Labor during the Obama administration, and held professorships at the University of Houston and at University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. She is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a research fellow of the Center for Economic Policy Research, Institute for the Study of Labor, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration and the Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality at Stanford University.

Expertise: Labor market policies, unemployment, unemployment insurance, training programs, payroll taxes, employment protections, occupational licensing, immigration

Location: Washington, D.C.

Email: ak659@georgetown.edu

Phone: (202) 687-5716

Heard on: The Economist’s Ideas Economy: Human Potential