Emily Weisburst is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research focuses on topics in labor economics and public finance, including criminal justice and education.
Weisburst recently earned her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin. While in graduate school, she worked as a Staff Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers in the Executive Office of the President and as a research associate for the RAND Corporation on joint projects with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Weisburst has also received the NAED Spencer Dissertation Fellowship to support her research on the impact of funding for police in public schools on student disciplinary outcomes and educational attainment in Texas.

Her research interests include understanding factors that impact police decision-making and public trust in police. She is also interested in how interactions with the criminal justice system affect individuals, families, and communities. A recent paper examines how much police discretion matters to law enforcement outcomes, after accounting for offense context. In this project, she finds that the likelihood that an incident results in an arrest critically depends on the officer that shows up to respond to an offense reported through a police call for service.