Welcome!
I am an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Colorado Denver. I will begin a new position as an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Colorado Boulder in August 2025.
I am also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a Non-Resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), and an affiliate of the Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) at the University of Wisconsin.
I study U.S. policies—including safety net and social insurance programs, as well as immigration policy—and examine how they affect outcomes of both foreign-born and U.S.-born people. My work has been cited in numerous policy contexts and by major media outlets, and has been published in top economics journals including the American Economic Review and the Journal of Labor Economics. I earned a B.S. in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Davis.
In Spring 2022 I founded the Equitable Policy Research Lab. I currently serve as the Associate Chair for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at the CU Denver Economics department. I also founded and chair the EDI committee in the Economics department. I co-lead the Research Working Group within the Children Thrive Action Network. Finally, I am the co-chair of the Women in Economics Community for APPAM.
See my work on: Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, 6/29/2025
I am an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Colorado Denver. I will begin a new position as an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Colorado Boulder in August 2025.
I am also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a Non-Resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), and an affiliate of the Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) at the University of Wisconsin.
I study U.S. policies—including safety net and social insurance programs, as well as immigration policy—and examine how they affect outcomes of both foreign-born and U.S.-born people. My work has been cited in numerous policy contexts and by major media outlets, and has been published in top economics journals including the American Economic Review and the Journal of Labor Economics. I earned a B.S. in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Davis.
In Spring 2022 I founded the Equitable Policy Research Lab. I currently serve as the Associate Chair for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at the CU Denver Economics department. I also founded and chair the EDI committee in the Economics department. I co-lead the Research Working Group within the Children Thrive Action Network. Finally, I am the co-chair of the Women in Economics Community for APPAM.
See my work on: Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, 6/29/2025
News
I will begin a new position as an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Colorado Boulder in August 2025.
Academics who do work on immigration, please check out this guide I helped write on how to support immigration policy work. (Updated Dec 2024)
In September 2024 I published a piece through Brookings on what we should expect the labor market effects of mass deportations to be based on my past research. This research has been covered by many outlets recently including the New York Times, National Public Radio, CNN, and WBUR Boston.
I received a multi-year NSF grant in summer 2024 for my work with Jason Cook and Marianne Bitler on administrative burden and inequality in the U.S. safety net.
Contact Information
chloe.east[at]ucdenver[dot]edu
@ChloeNEast
she/her