Lisa Kahn is a Professor of Economics at the University of Rochester.

Before she was an associate professor of economics at the Yale School of Management, where she focused on research topics related to labor and organizations. She holds an A.B. in economics from the University of Chicago and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.

Her most recent work uses data on job vacancy postings to examine whether the Great Recession exacerbated technological change, contributing to accelerated polarization of the U.S. economy. She has also developed a methodology for measuring the contributions of employer learning and productivity evolution in determining life-cycle earnings. In previous work, she examined the consequences of graduating from college in an economic downturn, finding surprisingly long-lasting, negative wage effects. That paper won the award for the best paper published in Labour economics in 2010/11.

Her recent published works include "Cashier or Consultant," (with Joseph Altonji and Jamin Speer), Journal of Labor Economics, Vol. 34, No. S1, Jan 2016, and "Employer Learning, Productivity and the Earnings Distribution: Evidence from Performance Measures," (with Fabian Lange), Review of Economic Studies, Vo. 81(4), 2015. Her work has been widely cited in both academic articles and in the press, including such publications as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Atlantic, Financial Times, Slade, Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Business Week.

In 2010-2011, Professor Kahn served as a senior economist in President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. There, she focused on labor and education policy.

She joined IZA as a Research Fellow in November 2012.