Eric Bettinger

About

Eric Bettinger is a senior fellow (joint) at the Hoover Institution and the Conley-DeAngelis Professor of Education in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. He is internationally recognized for his work in the economics of education and has advised governments in both developed and developing countries. 

His research focuses on how educational systems affect student outcomes. He conducted some of the first educational voucher studies both in the United States and in developing countries. He has also examined diverse determinants of student access and performance in higher educational systems—specifically the effects of online instruction, financial aid simplification, mentorship, adjunct professors, financial aid systems, and remediation programs. He has also examined how socio-emotional skills affect learning at all levels. His work emphasizes how the actions taken by policy makers and managers can directly influence educational outcomes. His approach integrates theoretically informed framing, modern techniques for causal inference, and the data produced by complex educational systems with the practical concerns that inform contemporary debates in education policy and practice. Bettinger is in the top 5 percent of most highly cited economists worldwide.

He is also a research associate in the program on education at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Bettinger is the director of the Center for Educational Policy Analysis and a codirector at the Lemann Center for Brazilian Education at Stanford. He is also a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and an affiliate of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. He previously held an academic appointment at Case Western Reserve University. Bettinger received a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University and a doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2022 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Zurich recognizing his contributions to the economics of education.