Helen F. Ladd, Edgar T. Thompson Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Economics

Helen F. Ladd
Office Location:  214a Sanford Building
Office Phone:  (919) 613-7352
Email Address: send me a message

Teaching (Spring 2010):

Education:

PhDHarvard University1974
MSc with distinctionLondon School of Economics1968
B.A.Wellesley College1967
Specialties:

Public Finance
Microeconomics
Research Interests: Education policy, state and local public finance, intergovernmental fiscal relations

Much of my current research focuses on education policy. As an applied policy-ioriented economist I address isues related to school finance, accountability, school choice, and teacher labor markets, in both the U.S. and selected other countries. My most recent (co-authored with Edward Fiske) book is on South Africa and is called "Elusive Equity: Education Reform in Post-Apartheid South Africa" (Brookings Institution Press, 2004).

Areas of Interest:

School finance
state and local public finance
school choice
teacher labor markets
racial disparities in education

Keywords:

education • school choice • education finance • racial achievement gaps

Representative Publications   (search)

  1. H.F. Ladd and Edward B. Fiske eds., Handbook of Research in Education Finance and Policy (2008), Routledge (Official handbook of the American Education Finance Association..)
  2. H.F. Ladd with Charles Clotfelter and Jacob Vigdor, The Academic Achievement Gap in Grades 3 to 8, Review of Economics and Statistics (forthcoming) [w12207]
  3. H.F. Ladd with Charles Clotfelter and Jacob Vigdor, Teacher-Student Matching and the Assessment of Teacher Effectiveness, Journal of Human Resources, vol. 41 no. 4 (Fall 2006), pp. 778-820 [online]
  4. H.F. Ladd with Robert Bifulco, School choice, racial segregation, and test-score gaps: Evidence from North Carolina's charter school program, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, vol. 26 no. 1 (Winter 2007), pp. 31-56
  5. H.F. Ladd with Edward B. Fiske, Racial Equity in Education: How Far Has South Africa Come?, Special Issue on Education Finance, edited by Jonathan Jansen, Perspectives in Education, vol. 24 (June 2006), pp. 95-108