Bárbara J. Robles

Affiliation: Federal Reserve Board, Retired

Educational Background: PhD, Economics, University of Maryland College Park

Bárbara J. Robles earned her PhD in economics with a focus on money, banking, and econometrics from the University of Maryland College Park. She is the co-author of Latino Farm Entrepreneurship in Rural America (2020) with Alfonso Morales and Michael Pisani and Exploring Online and Offline Informal Work: Findings from the Enterprising and Informal Work Activities (EIWA) Survey (2016) with Marysol McGee. Additionally, she is the author of Economic Inclusion and Financial Education in Diverse Communities: Leveraging Cultural Capital and Whole Family Learning (2014) and US Latino Families, Heads of Households, and the Elderly: Emerging Trends in Financial Services and Asset-Building Behaviors (2009). She also co-authored the 2006 Gustavus-Meyers Human Rights award book, The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the US Racial Wealth Divide (2006).

Robles has taught at Arizona State University, The University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Colorado-Boulder. She has held the position of tax examiner for the IRS, as well as revenue estimator/economist for the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, scoring tax legislation for the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees. She recently retired from the Federal Reserve Board, where she was a principal economist in the Division of Consumer and Community Affairs.

Robles is currently engaged in research exploring data collection methods and survey protocol addressing hard-to-reach populations and neglected communities, digital divide issues in community economic development, economic inclusion, tax and financial education, the gig economy, and entrepreneurship/self-employment.