ABSTRACT
Over the last quarter century, the discipline of economics has taken on growing importance in education research and policy. More and more frequently economists are seen in positions of infl uence within the education, academic and policy community. For example, economists Eric Hanushek and Carolyn Hoxby serve on the National Board for Education Sciences, the fl agship advisory group for the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) research agenda, and economists dominate the ED’s peer review panels for education policy research. Economists are faculty members in the Schools of Education at leading research institutions such as Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, University of Southern California, and Vanderbilt. Topics on the economics of education make up a sizeable part of conference agendas for the American Education Finance Association (AEFA) and the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM).1 There is also evidence that the economics of education has grown rapidly as a fi eld within economics during recent years. Numerous scholarly journal articles are published in leading economics journals such as the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the Journal of Human Resources, among others. Economics of Education Review, an academic journal devoted entirely to research on education economics has seen increasing numbers of articles from senior “star” economists in recent years. Although hard to quantify precisely, it certainly appears that economists have more to say about educational issues than in the past.
