Dr. Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes is professor of economics at University of California, Merced, a Research Fellow at CReAM, FEDEA and IZA, an Advisory committee member of the Americas Center Advisory Council at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and the Western Representative in the Committee for the Status of Women in the Economics Professions (CSWEP) since 2015.

Her areas of interest include labor economics, international migration and remittances. She has published on contingent work contracts, the informal work sector, international remittances, as well as on immigrant savings, health care and labor market outcomes. Her work has been funded by the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), the Hewlett Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, among other agencies. She was the 2013-2014 Border Fulbright García-Robles Scholar, Department Chair between 2015 and 2018, President of the American Society of Hispanic Economists (ASHE) in 2014, and has held visiting positions at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and at the Public Policy Institute of California.

Her current research broadly focuses on immigration policy and its consequences. She examines the impact that state and local level immigration policy is having on the employment, education, fertility and human rights of undocumented immigrants, as well as on the effect of immigration policy geared towards high-skilled immigrants.