PUBPOL 3550
Economics of Education
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.
Topics
- 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.
Official roster learning outcomes
Prerequisites & course information
PUBPOL 2000 and PUBPOL 3100.
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027
- Catalogue entry ↗
Catalogue variants
- Economics of Education · 3.0 · Undergraduate