Economics of Education

The Economics of Education area is headed by Eric A. Hanushek (Hoover Institution of Stanford University) and Ludger Woessmann (ifo Institute and LMU Munich). The area brings together the world's best economists studying issues of schooling at all levels. A major goal is providing scientific input into policy discussions about the improvement of education..

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“My goal as area director is facilitating scholarly interaction that leads to new and improved ways to bring rigorous analysis to the study of education. The economics of education is a very dynamic area of research, and the network provides a mechanism for transmitting state of the art approaches to the analysis of educational performance.”

Professor Eric A. Hanushek, Area Director Economics of Education

“High-quality education is the foundation for long-run economic prosperity at the micro and macro level. The CESifo area explores which aspects of education are crucial for prosperity and equity and which policies work to improve education. The international network allows us to learn from different countries’ experiences.”

Professor Ludger Woessmann, Area Director Economics of Education

  • Area Directors

    • Eric A. Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He has been a leader in the development of economic analysis of educational issues. He has authored numerous, highly cited studies on the effects of class size reduction, high stakes accountability, value-added assessments of teacher quality, and other education-related topics. His pioneering analysis measuring teacher quality through the growth in student achievement forms the basis for current research into the value-added of teachers and schools. His book with Ludger Woessmann, The Knowledge Capital of Nations: Education and the Economics of Growth, identifies the close link between the skills of the people and the economic growth of the nation and shows the economic impact of high-quality schools. He has authored or edited 23 books along with over 200 articles. He is a Distinguished Graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and completed his PhD in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

       

      Ludger Woessmann is Director of the ifo Center for the Economics of Education and Professor of Economics at the University of Munich. He is also Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Being interested in the determinants of long-term prosperity of mankind, his main research focus is on the economics of education, especially the importance of education for economic prosperity and the effects of school systems on educational achievement and equality of opportunity. His work was rewarded, among others, with the Hermann Heinrich Gossen Award and the Gustav Stolper Award of the German Economic Association and the Young Economist Award of the European Economic Association. He is co-editor of the Handbook of the Economics of Education and a Fellow of the Academia Europaea, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Academic Advisory Council of the German Federal Ministry of Economics, and the International Academy of Education. His work has been published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of Political Economy, the Journal of Economic Literature, and Science, among many others, and is regularly covered by the national and international media.

  • Area Members
  • Distinguished CESifo Affiliate Award

    • The Distinguished CESifo Affiliate Award, aimed at encouraging talented young scholars, is awarded to the best paper presented by a young author at each of the CESifo Area conferences. Accepted candidates are invited to attend the Area Conference to which they have been nominated and present their paper. An award committee will judge the papers (and presentations) and select a winner. Nominations will be considered for candidates who are either close to completion of the PhD, or who have completed their PhD in the previous five years. The same limit applies to co-authors in the case of papers with multiple authors. The criteria for the award are scientific originality, policy relevance and quality of exposition. The winning paper will appear in the CESifo Working Paper Series. 

      Year Distinguished Affiliate(s) Title of the paper
      2023 Adam Altmejd Inheritance of Fields of Study
      2022 Mikko Silliman Childcare, Social Skills, and the Labor Market
      2021 Barbara Biasi The Education-Innovation Gap
        Alexander L.P. Willén When Parents Decide: Gender Differences in Competitiveness
      2019 Camille Terrier Fiscal and Education Spillovers from Charter School Expansion
      2018 Jason B. Cook Racial Segregation, Student Achievement, and Postsecondary Attainment: Evidence from the Introduction of Race-Blind Magnet School Lotteries
        Ulf Zölitz Peers from Venus and Mars – Higher-Achieving Men Foster Gender Gaps in Major Choice and Labor Market Outcomes
      2017 Will S. Dobbie Racial Bias in Bail Decisions
        Simon Jäger How Substitutable Are Workers? Evidence from Worker Deaths
        Jens Ruhose International Emigrant Selection on Occupational Skills
      2016 Sarah R. Cohodes The Long-Run Impacts of Tracking High-Achieving Students: Evidence from Boston’s Advanced Work Class
      2015 Lesley J. Turner All or Nothing? The Impact of School and Classroom Gender Composition on Effort and Academic Achievement
      2014 Andrew Christopher Barr Fighting for Education: Veterans and Financial Aid
      2013 Peter Leopold S. Bergman Parent-Child Information Frictions and Human Capital Investment: Evidence from a Field Experiment
      2012 Monique De Haan The Effect of Additional Funds for Low-ability Pupils: A Nonparametric Bounds Analysis
      2011 Karthik Muralidharan
             		 Long-Term Effects of Teacher Performance Pay: Experimental Evidence from India
      2010 Katja Maria Kaufmann Educational Choices and Subjective Expectations of Returns: Evidence on Intra-Household Decisions and Gender Differences
  • Conference
  • Affiliated ifo Center

Video Introduction

Video —

CESifo Area Conference on Economics of Education 2018

Interview, CESifo Area Conferences

CESifo Area Conference: Economics of Education, 30.08.2018
Prof. Eric A. Hanushek, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University

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