Orrington Lunt Professor of Education & Social Policy; Professor of Economics
Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research
Northwestern University
2040 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL 60208
figlio@northwestern.edu

Ph.D., Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Curriculum Vitae
Figlio Homepage
Expertise: school accountability, school finance, school vouchers, testing policy, education and health policy

Biography

David N. Figlio is the Orrington Lunt Professor of Education and Social Policy, and Professor of Human Development and Social Policy, and Economics (by courtesy) at Northwestern University. Dr. Figlio is a member of the CALDER Management Team and directs the CALDER Florida work. He is also a Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research, Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Associate with the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is the inaugural co-editor of the American Education Finance Association’s journal, Education Finance and Policy (MIT Press). 

Dr. Figlio’s research on education and social policy, including influential work on school accountability, standards, welfare policy, and policy design, has been published in numerous leading journals including the American Economic Review, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Law and Economics, and Journal of Human Resources. His work has examined the efficacy of pre-kindergarten programs and the determinants and effects of teacher expectations on students. He has also extensively studied the intended and unintended consequences of accountability systems: Food for Thought? The Effects of School Accountability Plans on School Nutrition; Accountability, Ability, and Disability: Gaming the System?; and Testing, Crime, and Punishment. More recently, Dr. Figlio mounted an impressive survey of Florida principals to identify their responses to accountability pressures. (See CALDER Working Paper 13: Feeling the Florida Heat? How Low-Performing Schools Respond to Voucher and Accountability Programs). 

His current research involves evaluating the Florida Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship Program, the largest school voucher program in the United States and conducting a large-scale study of school accountability in Florida that involves survey data on a census of public school principals in the state and state administrative data on student achievement.

Dr. Figlio has served on numerous national education task forces and panels, and has advised several U.S. states and foreign nations on the design, implementation and evaluation of education policies. Prior to joining the Northwestern faculty in 2008, Figlio taught at the University of Florida, where he was the Knight-Ridder Professor of Economics and before that at the University of Oregon. Figlio received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

» CALDER-Related Publications by Dr. Figlio

» CALDER Publications by Dr. Figlio