Rate My Professor Kirabo Jackson

Kirabo Jackson is the Abraham Harris Professor of Human Development and Social Policy and a Professor of Economics at Northwestern University in the School of Education and Social Policy, contributing significantly to Social Science research. He received his PhD in Economics from Harvard University in 2007, an AM in Economics from Harvard in 2005, and a BA in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale University in 2002. Jackson commenced his academic career as an Assistant Professor of Labor Economics in the ILR School at Cornell University from 2007 to 2010. He then joined Northwestern University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Development and Social Policy from 2010 to 2013, was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2013, became a full Professor in 2017, assumed the Abraham Harris Professorship in 2019, and was appointed Professor of Economics in 2021. Additional roles include Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research since 2010, Faculty Research Fellow and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research since 2009, service on the American Economic Association's Committee on the Status of Minority Groups in the Economics Profession, and Lead Editor of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy since 2022. He served as a member of President Biden's Council of Economic Advisors from 2023 to 2024.

A labor economist, Jackson's research specializations encompass education policy, teacher labor markets, and social policy issues. His work investigates the role of peer learning in teacher effectiveness, how student demographics influence teacher quality distribution across schools, the context-dependence of teacher impacts, optimal measurement of teacher quality, effects of public school spending on student outcomes through adulthood, college-preparatory programs, educational tracking, and single-sex education in low-performing schools. Notable publications include 'The Effects of School Spending on Educational and Economic Outcomes: Evidence from School Finance Reforms' (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2016), 'What Do Test Scores Miss? The Importance of Teacher Effects on Non-Test Score Outcomes' (Journal of Political Economy, 2018), 'Do School Spending Cuts Matter? Evidence from the Great Recession' (American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2021), 'Can Introducing Single-Sex Education into Low-Performing Schools Improve Academics, Arrests, and Teen Motherhood?' (Journal of Human Resources, 2021), and 'What is a Good School, and Can Parents Tell? Evidence on the Multidimensionality of School Output' (Review of Economic Studies, 2023). His scholarship has appeared in premier journals such as the Journal of Labor Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, and American Economic Review: Insights. Jackson's contributions have been recognized with election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2022 and the National Academy of Education in 2020, the David N. Kershaw Award from the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management in 2020, the Martin E. and Gertrude G. Walder Award for Research Excellence in 2018, and the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship in 2016. Since 2016, Education Week has listed him among top university-based scholars influencing educational policy and practice. His research receives support from the National Science Foundation, Spencer Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Smith Richardson Foundation, and others.