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Alex Nowrasteh

Vice President for Economic and Social Policy Studies

Alex Nowrasteh is the vice president for economic and social policy studies. His popular publications have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Washington Post, and most other major publications in the United States. Nowrasteh regularly appears on Fox News, MSNBC, Bloomberg, NPR, and numerous television and radio stations.

His peer‐​reviewed academic publications have appeared in the World Bank Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Public Choice, Kyklos, the Journal of Bioeconomics, and others. He has also contributed numerous book chapters to various edited volumes. Nowrasteh is the coauthor (with Benjamin Powell) of Wretched Refuse? The Political Economy of Immigration and Institutions (Cambridge University Press, 2020), which is the first book on how economic institutions in receiving countries adjust to immigration. Wretched Refuse? received the SDAE Prize for the Best Book in Austrian Economics in 2022 from the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics.

Nowrasteh, a native of Southern California, received a BA in economics from George Mason University and an MS in economic history from the London School of Economics.

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Speaking Engagements
Most Common Arguments against Immigration cover
Featured Book

The Most Common Arguments Against Immigration and Why Theyre Wrong

The Most Common Arguments Against Immigration and Why They’re Wrong contains the 15 most common arguments against immigration and Cato Institute scholar Alex Nowrasteh’s responses to them.

Immigration has been the most hotly debated public policy issue in the United States since Donald Trump entered the Republican primary in mid-2015. A new Biden Administration has an opportunity to reverse the anti-immigration actions of the Trump Administration and expand legal immigration.