Jennie E. Brand

Education and career Brand received a B.A. in sociology and philosophy from the University of California, San Diego in 1997 and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2004. Until 2021, she chaired the Methodology Section of the ASA, currently chairs the Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Section of the ASA, and sits on the boards of the International Sociological Association's Research Committee on Social Stratification and Mobility, the Bureau of Labor Statistics National Longitudinal Surveys Program Technical Review Committee, and the General Social Survey.

Research Brand has made notable empirical contributions in the subfields of social stratification and the sociology of education. In an influential 2010 study of returns to higher education, Brand and Yu Xie challenge the conventional economistic view that comparative advantage would make the individuals with the most to gain from a college degree more likely to seek one out. They argue instead that the individuals least likely to attend college benefit the most from it.

Brand has also made significant methodological contributions to quantitative sociology. She has published extensively on treatment effect heterogeneity and propensity score matching. She serves on the editorial board of Sociological Methods & Research.

Publications Brand's most cited publications are:

Brand, Jennie E. and Yu Xie. 2010. “Who Benefits Most from College? Evidence for Negative Selection in Heterogeneous Economic Returns to Higher Education.” American Sociological Review 75(2):273-302. Burgard, Sarah A., Jennie E. Brand, and James S. House. 2009. “Perceived Job Insecurity and Worker Health in the United States.” Social Science & Medicine 69(5):777-785. Brand, Jennie E. 2015. “The Far-Reaching Impact of Job Loss and Unemployment.” Annual Review of Sociology 41:359-375. Burgard, Sarah A., Jennie E. Brand, and James S. House. 2007. “Toward a Better Estimation of the Effect of Job Loss on Health.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 48(4):369-384.