Kirabo Jackson is a labor economist who studies education and social policy issues. He has analyzed several important aspects of education policy such as the importance of public school funding on student outcomes through adulthood, the effects of college-preparatory programs on students’ college and labor market outcomes, the effects of educational tracking on students’ academic achievement, and the effects of single-sex education on students’ academic performance.
Jackson’s scholarly articles have appeared in leading economics journals such as the Quarterly Journal of Economics, American Economic Journal, Journal of Labor Economics, The Review of Economics and Statistics, and The Journal of Human Resources. His research has been featured in a number of mainstream media outlets, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and others. Jackson’s work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Spencer Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Smith Richardson Foundation, and other organizations.
Currently, Jackson is a co-editor at the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, and he was previously co-editor of The Journal of Human Resources. He previously served on the American Economic Association's committee on the status of minority groups in the economics profession and is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. In 2020, he received the David N. Kershaw Award from the Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management, which recognizes distinguished policy research contributions for scholars under 40. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Education.
Jackson earned his bachelor’s degree in ethics, politics, and economics from Yale University in 1998 and his PhD in economics from Harvard University in 2007. He was assistant professor of labor economics at Cornell University between 2007 and 2010, and then moved to Northwestern University where he subsequently earned tenure in 2012.
Student Lecture: Beyond Test Scores
This presentation will overview Jackson's research documenting that key aspects of education quality are not well-measures by standardized tests. The presentation will cover a variety of educational interventions across several national contexts. Some suggestions for policy are provided.
Faculty Seminar: What Impacts Can We Expect from School Spending Policy? Evidence from Evaluations in the U.S.
We conduct meta-analysis on a comprehensive set of design-based studies of the impacts
of U.S. K-12 public-school spending on student outcomes. On average, a policy increasing
spending by $1000 per-pupil for four years improves test scores by 0.0316σ and college-going by 2.8pp. Deconvolution models and formal tests show that the distribution of true effects is approximately normal for both outcomes. Given this, we use estimates of heterogeneity and observable policy differences to produce informative probability distributions of true policy effects. The standard deviation of true heterogeneity (i.e., that not explained by sampling variability) in test score impacts is about two-thirds the size of the mean. Accordingly, test score effects are almost always positive – ranging between -0.004σ and 0.067σ ninety percent of the time. For educational attainment, the standard deviation of heterogeneity is less than half the size of the mean so that effects on college-going are always positive – ranging between 0.5 and 5.1pp ninety percent of the time. Marginal effects of capital spending are similar to non-capital, and effects are similar across baseline spending levels and geography. We do find that marginal effects are larger for less-economically-advantaged populations – particularly on educational attainment. Confounding and publication biases are minimal.