Current projects and selected publications appear first, followed by the full research portfolio organized by theme.
Long-run evidence from court-mandated school finance reforms.
Evidence on teacher effects on non-test-score outcomes and later student success.
Evidence on the multidimensionality of school output and parent preferences.
Combines design-based micro estimates with cohort replacement to predict the aggregate earnings effects of school finance reforms, then tests those predictions using state-level wages, personal income, and GDP.
Studies how universal pre-K affects labor-market activity and aggregate earnings across U.S. states and large cities.
Examines when local leadership and responsiveness to local needs translate decentralization into gains in student achievement.
Uses exogenous school assignments and the COVID-19 downturn in Barbados to study whether education protects workers from job loss.
The core of Jackson's reputation: reframing whether — and how — public school spending affects student outcomes.
Combines design-based micro estimates of school-finance-reform effects on private earnings with a cohort-replacement framework to generate ex ante predictions for aggregate earnings, then tests those predictions using state-level wages, personal income, and GDP. The estimated aggregate response is delayed as treated cohorts enter the labor market and closely tracks the micro-calibrated path.
Using court-mandated school finance reforms as exogenous shifts in spending, the paper finds that sustained increases in per-pupil spending raise educational attainment and adult wages and reduce adult poverty, with larger effects for children from low-income families.
The paper exploits plausibly exogenous state-level variation in recession-induced school spending cuts. Cohorts exposed to larger cuts had lower test scores and college-going rates, and the cuts widened gaps by income and race.
A meta-analysis of design-based U.S. studies finds positive average effects of increased K–12 spending on test scores and educational attainment, while quantifying how impacts vary across policies and contexts.
A synthesis of the modern design-based literature on school spending, contrasting newer causal evidence with older observational studies and reviewing what the newer evidence implies for policy.
The paper finds that, for poor children, the benefits of Head Start are larger when followed by better-funded K–12 schools, while the benefits of K–12 spending are larger for children who previously had access to Head Start.
A policy-focused review of the evidence on school spending, including historical trends, limitations of the older descriptive literature, and the implications of newer causal studies.
A concise presentation of the school-finance-reform evidence, explaining the identification strategy and the long-run effects of reform-induced spending increases on educational attainment and adult earnings.
The largest body of his work: how teachers are sorted, matched, measured, and how their effects extend beyond test scores.
Natural experiments — mostly from Trinidad and Tobago's rule-based school assignment — identifying what schools actually do for students, and what parents value.
Current working papers, plus work on downturns, job loss, and school governance reform.
Earlier work applying causal methods outside education — taxis, alcohol policy, and workplace incentives.