LEONIDAS MUREMBYA
Associate Professor, Department of Economics
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 USA
State Administrator, Data Analysis and Reporting,
Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency
Education
Ph.D., Economics, Michigan State University
M.A., Economics, Michigan State University
B.S., Economics and Business Administration, National University of Rwanda
Professional Expertise
Dr. Leonidas Murembya is an Associate Professor of International Development for the economics department at Michigan State University. He is also a State Administrator of the Data Analysis and Reporting section of the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency.
Since 2014, Dr. Murembya has developed and taught courses in the economics of sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America; courses in the evaluation of social research and of public policies and programs; and a course on social inequalities in the American society with a focus on Black America. Dr. Murembya was involved in teaching two courses for the American Economic Association Summer Program in the summer of 2020 (Foundations of Mathematics and of Microeconomics). Starting fall 2020, Dr. Murembya has developed courses on the economics of South and East Asia (EC413) and on issues in the economics of developing countries (EC410). Starting in the fall of 2022, Dr. Murembya teaches large-sized introduction to macroeconomics courses (EC202), in addition to the 400-level courses he previously developed.
For over 27 years, Dr. Murembya has also been an economist for the State of Michigan, providing crucial economic data and analysis to Michigan’s economic and workforce development agencies, including frequent presentations on the economic trends of the state. His writings include communities’ labor market and population profiles, an evaluation of the green economy of Michigan, several sectoral analyses of the state such as the automotive industry, agriculture, construction, high-tech manufacturing, and others.
Since November 2022, Dr. Murembya is the manager of the section of data analysis and reporting for the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency, responsible for overseeing over 26 reports on unemployment benefits activities. The section Dr. Murembya manages analyze UIA's administrative data to inform the state's leadership and legislature, as well as the public, about the Michigan UIA activities. Among others, the section provided projections of the impact of the new UI legislation, Senate Bill 40 of 2023 (Public Act 173 of 2024), which went into effect in April 2025, increasing the Maximum Benefits Duration from 20 to 26 weeks and the Maximum Weekly Benefit (MWB) gradually to $614 by 2027, and then adjusting for inflation onward (the current MWB for 2025 is $446). Dr Murembya's section built an Economic Dashboard to inform the public of Michigan UI Agency's activities.
Currently, Dr. Murembya is working the Upjohn Institute to build a microsimulation model of policy change impacts on the Michigan UI system.
Dr. Murembya and other colleagues at Michigan State University just completed a Coffee Development Report for year 2021, looking at how to enhance the involvement of youth in the coffee global value chain.
Recently, Dr. Murembya has been involved in capacity-building efforts in Mali with funding from the US Agency for International Development in which he trains select graduate students on how to use available data from international institutions (e.g., the World Bank) as well as data from their own surveys for analysis of agro-economic issues. In April 2021, Dr. Murembya was contracted by the MSU Food Security Group to write a policy brief on the impact of COVID on employment, income, and food security in Mali.
Dr. Murembya conducted research on the issue of price liberalization and the well-being of smallholder farmers in Malawi. He also worked in Rwanda with Professor Emeritus Donald Mead on issues of microenterprises.