Mary Arends-Kuenning is Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She received a B.S.F.S. from Georgetown University, an M.A. from the University of Chicago, and an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Prior to joining the University of Illinois, she was a Berelson Post Doctoral Fellow at the Population Council in New York City.

Dr. Arends-Kuenning's research examines economic and demographic issues in developing countries. Her research focuses on child labor and children’s schooling, family planning, intrahousehold allocation, and changing gender roles. She has published articles in a variety of journals and books including Demography, World Development, Population and Development Review, Studies in Family Planning and Economics of Education Review. She has experience living and working in Nicaragua, Bangladesh, Brazil, Peru, and South Africa. She has worked as a consultant for the World Bank, the International Food Policy Research Institute, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Population Council.

Current research projects include investigating changes in intrahousehold allocation over time in Brazil, determinants of women’s empowerment among agricultural households in Brazil, and health inequalities by race, ethnicity, and urban/rural residence in the U.S.

She joined IZA as a Research Fellow in November 2006.