Brian Cadena is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Colorado Boulder.

He received a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan in 2008 and a B.A. in Economics and Psychology from Northwestern in 2003.

His primary research interests are the role of immigration in the labor market, behavioral economics' role in human capital investment, and the evaluation of anti-poverty and active labor market programs.

His work has been supported by grants from the Russell Sage Foundation and the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research, and his research has been published in leading journals including the Review of Economics and Statistics, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of International Economics, and Journal of Public Economics.

He serves as an Associate Editor at Journal of Human Resources.

He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in April 2015.