Juan Esteban Saavedra is an Economist at the Dornsife Center for Economic and Social policy research with a research focus on development economics, labour economics and the economics of education. He has published peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on topics that include vouchers for private schooling, the impact of educational resources on attainment, college value added and job training.

His current research projects include work on the collegiate and labour market impacts of school vouchers, the returns to college selectivity, the long term educational and employment impacts of conditional cash transfer and job training programs, charter school impacts, teacher quality and savings in low-income populations. He is currently the principal investigator for two randomised demonstration projects in Mexico and Colombia investigating, respectively, the impacts of a pilot charter school and how content, intensity and exposure to financial information affect savings among low-income youth.