Maude Toussaint-Comeau is a senior business economist in the community development and policy studies division of the economic research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Toussaint-Comeau’s research has been on the use of formal and informal financial markets by minority groups and the use of alternative financial services, such as check-cashing outlets and payday loan companies. She has also conducted a line of research on immigrant utilization of financial services; labor market adjustment of immigrants; immigrant impact on natives; homeownership attainment of immigrants; and immigrant self-employment and business ethnic networks. Her current research focuses on consumer sentiment and consumption expenditure and on diversity and firms’ productivity.
She has been published in International Migration Studies, Contemporary Economic Policy and Review of Economics and Statistics. Prior to joining the Chicago Fed in June 1998, she taught economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She received a Ph.D. in economics/public policy analysis from the University of Illinois at Chicago, an M.S. in economics from Temple University and a B.A. in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
