Abraham Harris Professor of Human Development and Social Policy · Northwestern University

Economist studying how investments in children and education shape opportunity and the economy.

C. Kirabo Jackson is an economist who studies how investments in children and education shape people’s lives and the broader economy. His research examines how students, families, teachers, schools, and governments respond to education policies—and how those choices affect educational opportunity, economic mobility, and inequality. In addition to conducting research, he teaches and mentors the next generation of scholars, gives public lectures, and provides evidence-based technical advice to policymakers on education, social policy, and the economy.

Professor of Human Development and Social Policy · Professor of Economics · Editor-in-Chief, AEJ: Economic Policy · Former Member, White House Council of Economic Advisers

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C. Kirabo Jackson in conversation at a public talk

Watson Institute, Brown University

School FinanceTeachersSchool Quality

2025–Editor-in-Chief, AEJ: Economic Policy

2023–24Member, White House Council of Economic Advisers

2021Elected Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

2020Elected Member, National Academy of Education

Selected insights

What the evidence reveals

Findings across the research program

School Finance

Long-run gains

More school funding can change lives—and eventually the economy.

Sustained increases in K–12 spending raise educational attainment and adult earnings, particularly for children from low-income families. As better-educated cohorts enter the workforce, those individual gains accumulate into higher aggregate earnings and economic output.

“As much as any over the last 10 years, it has helped shape the conversation around one of the most contested areas of American education.” — Kevin Mahnken, The 74, 2023

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Teacher Quality

Beyond tests

Great teachers do much more than raise test scores.

Teachers shape attendance, behavior, grades, and students’ progress through school. These effects predict important later outcomes even when they are only weakly related to a teacher’s effect on standardized test scores.

“The reason I find Kirabo Jackson’s work so fascinating is that he does a kind of end run around this dilemma.” — Paul Tough, Education Week, 2016

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School Choice & Quality

More than scores

A good school cannot be summarized by one test score.

Schools differ in how well they develop academic skills, socioemotional outcomes, educational attainment, and behavior. Parents appear to value several of these dimensions when choosing schools.

“Schools that build social-emotional qualities … are getting even better short-term and long-term results for students than schools that only boost test scores.” — Jill Barshay, The Hechinger Report, 2020

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Institutions & Incentives

Behavior responds

Rules and institutions shape the choices people make.

Across settings ranging from schools to workplaces and transportation, the research shows how incentives, information, monitoring, and social relationships can change behavior and economic outcomes.

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About

Jackson’s interest in education and opportunity was shaped in part by an international childhood spanning Jamaica, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and England. The son of a mathematician and an economist, he saw early how differences in educational opportunity could shape whether people were able to realize their potential. Before becoming an economist, he seriously considered psychology and music composition, and nearly double-majored in music and economics at Yale before ultimately earning a multidisciplinary degree in Ethics, Politics, and Economics.

Jackson earned his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 2007, began his academic career at Cornell University, and joined Northwestern in 2010.

Jackson tries to play tennis as often as his schedule allows and enjoys cooking, traveling, and spending time with his wife (an associate professor at Northwestern) and their two kids.

“He has made massive advances in several of the most important scholarly questions in education policy.”

— David Figlio, Northwestern Institute for Policy Research, 2020

“His work has greatly impacted education science and practice and will surely continue to define these fields moving forward.”

— Raj Chetty, Northwestern SESP Magazine, 2021

In 2023–24 he served as a Member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. He is Editor-in-Chief of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Education.