Caroline Hoxby
Published June 24, 2015
Updated April 2, 2021

Caroline Hoxby is the Scott and Donya Bommer Professor in Economics at Stanford University. She is also the director of the Economics of Education Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. Trained as a public finance and labor economist, Hoxby is a scholar of the economics of education. Her work often draws upon models of investment, incentives, market design, finance, optimal pricing, social insurance and behavioral economics.

Hoxby is a principal investigator of the Expanding College Opportunities project, a randomized controlled trial that had dramatic effects on low-income, high achievers’ college-going. Her work on elementary and secondary education also includes numerous studies of the effects of school choice and competition on student achievement, rewards for teaching, and the productivity of schools. Her ongoing research includes studies of Teach for America and how education affects economic growth.

Hoxby has been a presidential appointee to the National Board of Education Sciences and serves on advisory committees for the government, The Brookings Institution, and organizations with an interest in education policy.

Expertise: Economics of education, higher education, financial aid, college choice, low-income and/or disadvantaged students, school choice, online/virtual education, teachers (effects, pay, unionization, tenure, etc.), effects of education on economic growth, international comparisons of education (especially higher education), school finance (k-12), tax reform, behavioral public finance

Location: Stanford, Calif.

Phone: 650-725-8719

Heard on NPR Tell Me More: Navigating the College Money Maze


Is this source outdated? Email us.