PUBPOL 3550

Economics of Education

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

The economics of education is about understanding how and why people make decisions to invest in education, the effect of education on long-term social and economic outcomes, the behavior of those institutions that produce education, and how best to design and implement public policies affecting the level and distribution of education resources. The basic tools of economics provide a framework to evaluate education policies including K-12 school finance, student financial aid, and college admissions. Throughout the course, there will be an emphasis on examining empirical tests of the economic theory and measuring the effects of policy initiatives on educational outcomes.

Prerequisites REF-FA25/Corequisites REF-FA25 PUBPOL 2000, PUBPOL 3100. Corequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements (SBA-AG), (SBA-HE), (OCE-IL)

Last 4 terms offered (None)

Outcomes REF-FA25

• Apply the tools of economic analysis to assess core education policies.
• Differentiate between human capital and signaling models.
• Interpret empirical results from research papers as they relate to policy.
• Describe endogeneity issues in empirical research papers.

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