Today, May 17th, marks the 70th Anniversary of the landmark Brown v Board of Education ruling. As we commemorate & highlight the continued work needed to reclaim the promise of Brown, I’m pleased to share this newly-released paper (w/Ary Amerikaner) spencer.org/learning/reclaim…?

Head Start Efforts by the Trump Administration to undermine Head Start are very wrong. Head Start fulfills both egalitarian and meritocratic normative criteria. I emphasize Head Start as a component of meritocracy because it is the sort of policy that is integral to an efficient economy/society. Part of meritocracy involves matching students to schools and workers to jobs in such a way to maximize the relative value added of the matches (compared to other configurations) given some social objective. Another part involves making the distribution of skills across individuals the one that makes the matches most efficient when the matches occur. Chloe Gibbs @chloergibbs has written a great overview of the evidence on Head Start "Early Learning across Decades: Advances in Measuring Head Start Effectiveness," Journal of Economic Literature, forthcoming aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.12… which makes clear the contexts in which Head Start has been especially effective as well as limits to the body of existing literature. Studies that have particularly influenced my thinking on the value of Head Start include Christopher Walters, "Inputs in the Production of Early Childhood Human Capital: Evidence from Head Start," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2015 which studies heterogeneity across Head Start programs and reveals the importance of full-day programs in increasing cognitive skills and home center visits in improving socioemotional skills Rucker Johnson @ProfRucker and C. Kirabo Jackson @KiraboJackson, "Reducing Inequality through Dynamic Complementarity: Evidence from Head Start and Public School Spending" American Economic Journal: Economic Policy which finds significant dynamic complementarities between Head Start and the resources available to the schools participants attend, with implications for broader egalitarian/meritocratic policy design and Martha Bailey @martha_j_bailey, Shuqiao Sun @Sun_Shuqiao, and Brenden Timpe @bdtimpe, "Prep School for Poor Kids: The Long-Run Impacts of Head Start on Human Capital and Economic Self-Sufficiency," American Economic Review, 2021 which demonstrates Head Start has produce large long term educational outcome improvements among participants.

An Indefensible Attack on Head Start This is the latest effort by the Trump administration to eliminate Head Start. The specific policy proposed here will damage the program. Head Start fulfills both egalitarian and meritocratic normative criteria and easily passes standard cost benefit analyses. The effectiveness of Head Start is now well established. Studies I think are particularly compelling include Patrick Kline and Christopher Walters @c_r_walt, "Evaluating Public Programs with Close Substitutes: The Case of Head Start," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2016 which provides carefully constructed evidence that Head Start benefit cost ratio that exceed 1, even if benefits are restricted to adult earnings, once one properly accounts for program substitution into Head Start when accounting for net costs of the program Christopher Walters "Inputs in the Production of Early Childhood Human Capital: Evidence from Head Start," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2015 which studies heterogeneity across Head Start programs and reveals the importance of full-day programs in increasing cognitive skills and home center visits in improving socioemotional skills Rucker Johnson @ProfRucker and C. Kirabo Jackson @KiraboJackson, "Reducing Inequality through Dynamic Complementarity: Evidence from Head Start and Public School Spending" American Economic Journal: Economic Policy which finds significant dynamic complementarities between Head Start and the resources available to the schools participants attend, with implications for broader egalitarian/meritocratic policy design and Martha Bailey @martha_j_bailey, Shuqiao Sun @Sun_Shuqiao, and Brenden Timpe @bdtimpe, "Prep School for Poor Kids: The Long-Run Impacts of Head Start on Human Capital and Economic Self-Sufficiency," American Economic Review, 2021 which demonstrates Head Start has produce large long term educational outcome improvements among participants. nytimes.com/2026/07/31/us/po…

More high-quality evidence that, absent some intervention, there is no equality of opportunity. The world is not blind to race. LinkedOut? A Field Experiment on Discrimination in Job Network Formation* academic.oup.com/qje/article…

Excited to share some of our new work…

Marking the 60th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, a new CEA Issue Brief summarizes research on the continued prevalence of discrimination by race in a variety of economic domains & presents new analysis on racial discrimination and racial bias. 1/ whitehouse.gov/cea/written-m…

Look who’s featured on front page of today’s San Francisco Chronicle😉…headed to Pittsburgh (PA) for Rucker Jr to compete in national weightlifting championships this weekend✨💪🏾#proudparents #SpeedPowerStrength

Excited to share Rucker Jr is featured in today’s San Francisco Chronicle article (& will appear on front page of Wednesday’s newspaper print version)!😉#proudparents #SpeedPowerStrength sfchronicle.com/eastbay/arti…

#Morehouse 🙌🏾✨

It’s part of a 9-paper series commissioned by the Spencer Foundation, Learning Policy Institute, and the California Association of African-American Superintendents and Administrators. Here's a link to the 9-paper series: spencer.org/learning/categor…

Well deserved! I have always found Hilary an inspiring colleague, from her always constructive seminar comments to her impressive service as editor. My favorite, the belly laughter that let you know she is in the house! And her commitment to public service is legendary

🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾 What an incredible honor! The work continues. Apply here to join our team studying regional patterns and drivers of racial wealth inequality: tinyurl.com/y68st2p8

Our paper studying the relationship between school performance ratings, true school quality, and student racial composition is now out in AER: Insights! Ungated copy here: dropbox.com/scl/fi/vtv4o0fp9… Summary thread below

In Memoriam: Robert M. Solow @RussellSageFdn “As the Robert K. Merton scholar at RSF for two decades, Bob helped shape our research priorities & generously shared his insights on research & public policies with RSF presidents, staff & visiting scholars.” russellsage.org/news/memoria…

Forthcoming in @restatjournal: "The Effect of Police Oversight on Crime and Misconduct Allegations: Evidence from Chicago" by @romangrivera1 & Bocar Ba This paper has been widely cited in the field for a while - glad to see it's found a great home! doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_01377

Does money make a difference in student learning? Join us Dec 6 for a livestream event on 10 years of CA’s Local Control Funding Formula w/ @JerryBrownGov @Michael_Kirst @LDH_ed @ProfRucker @PPICNotes Julien Lafortune, @AsmMuratsuchi and others bit.ly/46fiMbE

.@RussellSageFdn's Pipeline Grants Program seeks to promote diversity in the social sciences. Early-career faculty who haven't previously received research support or a visiting fellowship from RSF are eligible @watkinshayes @ProfRucker @karthickr @ProfNai piped.video/watch?v=UMpGT5aP…

I wrote a piece for @TheAtlantic about the growing perception that college is no longer worth it. It's important for people to know that the value of a BA increases with work experience, peaking at ages 45-55. Tuition (and loans) must be repaid long before that. College seems like a bad deal initially and tuition is too high. Despite all that, it's often worth it in the long run. @paultough @DKThomp @JoshGoodman_BU