Is college enrollment plummeting? Reports of the death of the bachelor’s degree have been greatly exaggerated.

Popular discourse attributes falling college enrollments to the rising cost of four-year college.

That story is wrong in multiple ways, as @mattbarnum.bsky.social points out in his latest roundup of the evidence (citing a new working paper of ours):

www.chalkbeat.org/2025/11/11/i...

www.sole-jole.org/upcoming-mee...

Don't forget that the deadline for SOLE is coming up. The meeting will be in Denver on May 1-2 this year.

I am a big fan of SOLE and will be on the program committee reviewing higher education papers, so *definitely* submit if you have papers in higher education.

Link below

I like a good fast action rod but I agree.

Fishing a fiberglass rod is definitely slows you down, in the right way

Now you have to say which rod it was

If you know of a student who is looking for a education post doc (now, odd timing I know), I may have an opportunity for them. They would be working Texas admin data so experience with that would be a big plus.

First time being on the receiving end of this

Nothing makes me feel more like a professor than checking out a dusty old library book for research. Economics rarely looks like this—but it’s exactly what I thought professors did when I was a kid

I almost said in the original that it was not Josh Goodman level just to tamp down expectations

One of the best feelings in research is coming up with a great title. I may have come up with my favorite yet, stay tuned

Just published in @jpube.bsky.social:

"The graduation part II: Graduate program graduation rates"

By @jeffdenning.com & @lesleyturner.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#econsky #publiceconomics

Done fishing for a while

🎣

Had to make sure to catch a bow on this trip too

Nice cutthroat today

IES REBORN?

On today's Education Gadfly Show podcast, Fordham's Amber Northern (of "Amber's Research Minute" fame) announces that she's joining the Trump Administration for six months to help develop a plan for a new IES. Listen now (starts around 24:30): fordhaminstitute.org/national/res...

Day 14: Grades, graduation rates, and actual learning A series following my new class: The Economics of Higher Education

Happy surprise to see this discussion of our paper in Jessica Hoel's substack (which is good generally!)

liberalartsledger.substack.com/p/day-14-gra...

My intermediate micro students would be proud

We're thrilled to announce three outstanding researchers are joining the Upjohn Institute:
Chloe Gibbs @chloergibbs.bsky.social and Monique Davis @monique-e-davis.bsky.social in August
and Ethan Jenkins June 2.
Welcome!
#laboreconomics #econsky

I will also be involved with the University of Texas Austin Education Research Center so if you have questions about that data--send them my way!

Next year I'll be joining the LBJ School of Public Affairs and College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin.

It's a dream come true to be back at UT.

I want to thank @ndecon.bsky.social for the last two years--it has been a great place for me and my family.

1. LLM-generated code tries to run code from online software packages. Which is normal but
2. The packages don’t exist. Which would normally cause an error but
3. Nefarious people have made malware under the package names that LLMs make up most often. So
4. Now the LLM code points to malware.

Mississippi State Univ. is hiring a tenure-track Econ Assistant Prof w/ August start!

Open field; pref. for applied micro & teaching PhD Micro I & II (Micro II this fall).

Apply: MSU site & www.aeaweb.org/joe/listing.php?JOE_ID=2025-01_111475768

Please repost—it's an off-cycle search. Thanks!

Haha, kids!

At the district spell bowl, a night for the nerds. Let's get ready to rumble!

Would be pretty interested in that. But I'm biased having been at two places with undergraduate business degrees

I'd be interested to see the list for schools that have an undergraduate business degree. In some of these places econ is de facto business

Thanks to @chloergibbs.bsky.social and @jeffdenning.com and others for a great visit to Notre Dame (and great feedback on our paper studying the past 15 years of declines in community college enrollment).

Among many highlights of the visit was the branded waffle I just made myself for breakfast.

All of the topics have this format, very nice I think

Student Loans This report analyzes the effects of student loans on education, jobs, & finances. Key findings include loan access, college costs, & repayment options.

Happy to contribute this chapter on student loans in the United States to the @aefpweb.bsky.social live handbook.

I try to summarize what we have learned in student loan research recently.

livehandbook.org/higher-educa...