Zhuan Pei is a labor economist and applied econometrician. He studies social and employment programs that target disadvantaged populations, and he develops methods to evaluate these programs.  Prior to Cornell, he was a postdoctoral economist at the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research from 2012 to 2013 and an assistant professor of economics at Brandeis University between 2013 and 2015.

He has published in leading economics journals, and his work has been supported by grants from the William T. Grant Foundation, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, and the Russell Sage Foundation.

Professor Pei graduated summa cum laude from Carleton College with a B.A. in mathematics. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University where he earned the Albert Rees Dissertation Prize.