Biography
Eric Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University and one of the world’s leading scholars in the economics of education. His influential research has shaped education policy globally, with widely cited studies on teacher effectiveness, school accountability, class size, and the economic returns to educational quality. In 2021, he received the Yidan Prize for Education Research, the field’s most prestigious international award. With the prize money he founded the Africa Fellows in Education Program, a capacity-building program focused on improving education policy in Sub-Saharan Africa. He has authored or edited 26 books and more than 300 articles, and he serves as a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and the area coordinator for Economics of Education of the CESifo Research Network. He is a fellow of both the Society of Labor Economists and the American Educational Research Association. He previously held academic appointments at the University of Rochester, Yale University, and the U.S. Air Force Academy. His public service includes roles as a commissioner on the U.S. Department of Education’s Equity and Excellence Commission, chair of the National Board for Education Sciences (2008–2010), Deputy Director of the Congressional Budget Office (1983–1985), and member of the National Assessment Governing Board (2019–2023). A member of the National Academy of Education and the International Academy of Education, he earned his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after graduating as a Distinguished Graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy. https://hanushek.stanford.edu/
Other titles
Research interests
Achievement | Economics and Education | Educational Policy | International and Comparative Education | Poverty and Inequality | Race and Ethnicity | School Choice | School Reform | Teachers and Teaching
Recent publications
Hanushek, E. A., Wang, Y., & Zhang, L. (2025). Understanding trends in Chinese skill premiums, 2007-2018. JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE ECONOMICS, 53(2), 584–608.
Hanushek, E. A., Kinne, L., Witthöft, F., & Woessmann, L. (2025). Age and cognitive skills: Use it or lose it. Science Advances, 11(10), eads1560.
Demurger, S., Hanushek, E. A., & Zhang, L. (2024). Employer Learning and the Dynamics of Returns to Universities: Evidence from Chinese Elite Education during University Expansion. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND CULTURAL CHANGE.