Skip to content

Sari Pekkala Kerr

Wellesley College & National Bureau of Economic Research

Wellesley College & National Bureau of Economic Research

Sari Kerr is a senior research scientist and program director at Wellesley College. Her current research interests are in the area of entrepreneurship, immigration, and the intersection of family and the labor market.

Sari is primarily interested in how labor markets along with policy and industrial conditions shape the behavior of firms and the career trajectories of their employees. She recently testified in the United States congress on the impact of immigrant entrepreneurs in the U.S. economy.

Her work is also frequently covered in popular media outlets. Sari received her PhD from the University of Jyväskylä (Finland) in 2000. After completing the Yrjö Jahnsson post-doctoral fellowship at the economics department of MIT, Sari spent several years as an economic consultant at Charles River Associates in Toronto and Boston. After returning back to academia Sari has taught economics courses at Boston University, MIT, University of Helsinki, and Wellesley College.