Ragui A Assaad

Ragui A Assaad is a Professor at the University of Minnesota with affiliations at the Minnesota Population Center and Life Course Center. His research focuses on education, labor policy, and labor market analysis in developing countries, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa region. He has published extensively on inequality of opportunity in education, labor markets, transitions from school-to-work, employment and unemployment dynamics, family formation, informality, labor market responses to economic shocks, and international migration including forced migration effects.

His educational background includes:

• PhD in City & Regional Planning from Cornell University (1991)
• BS in Physics from Stanford University (1981)
• MS in Mechanical Engineering (1981)

Assaad's research interests span multiple interconnected domains in development studies. He investigates inequality of opportunity in education, examining how socioeconomic factors affect educational attainment in developing countries. His work on labor markets analyzes employment and unemployment dynamics, particularly focusing on transitions from school to work. He also studies family formation patterns and their relationship to economic outcomes, as well as the impacts of forced migration on labor markets. His research on informality explores the characteristics of formal and informal firms and implications for economic development policy.

His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on Middle Eastern and North African contexts, with particular attention to Egypt, Jordan, and Sudan. The research shows consistent methodological approaches using survey data and panel studies to analyze labor markets, education systems, and demographic trends. There's a clear trajectory toward examining the impacts of economic shocks, including the COVID-19 pandemic, on vulnerable populations in the region.

Assaad serves as a Research Fellow of the Economic Research Forum in Cairo, Egypt, where he also serves on the board of trustees. He is additionally a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, Germany.

He has served as Regional Director for West Asia and North Africa for the Population Council (2005-2008) and has consulted for major international organizations including the World Bank, International Labor Organization, Ford Foundation, UNICEF, and UNDP. His current research projects include the Integrated International Microdata Series (2024-2029) and the creation of the JLMPS questionnaire and sample design (2024-2026).

His work contributes to multiple United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those related to quality education, decent work, and economic growth.