Robert H. Topel is the Isidore Brown and Gladys J. Brown Professor in Urban and Labor Economics at the University of Chicago. Prior to joining the University of Chicago, Topel was at the University of California, Los Angeles, worked at RAND Corporation in Santa Monica and was a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research. He serves on several journal editorial boards and is the Editor of the Journal of Political Economy.

Topel received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.