Kevin Stange

Core faculty

Kevin Stange

Professor of Public Policy; PhD Program Director

Stange's research lies broadly in empirical labor and public economics, with a focus on education and health care. His prior research includes studies of college enrollment and persistence, the effect of resources and peers on community college students, the importance of amenities in college choice, and the effects of different pricing structures on major choice and student credit load.

News

Stange receives federal grant to classify college courses at scale

Oct 4, 2024

Research on college course taking, and what students learn while attending college have historically been hampered by inconsistent course titles and numbers across multiple institutions. Education economist Kevin Stange and a research team from the...

Publication

Higher education responds to changing labor markets

Jul 8, 2024

Do universities respond to the changing needs of industry by offering curriculums that provide students skills they need on the job? That’s the central question of a multi-year research project headed up by Kevin Stange, co-director of the...

News

Stange and Weiland promoted to full professors

May 16, 2024

On May 16, the Regents of the University of Michigan approved promotions for Kevin Stange and Christina Weiland. Stange was promoted to professor of public policy, with tenure, and professor of education. Weiland was promoted to professor of...

Headshots of Kevin Stange and Christina Weiland

State & Hill

Faculty news, spring 2024

Apr 24, 2024

Kamissa Camara chaired the Bipartisan Senior Study Group for the Sahel at the U.S. Institute of Peace. The study group’s comprehensive report critically assesses opportunities for peace, security, and economic development in the Sahel.Charlotte...

(Top row, left to right) Fullerton Rico, Hills, Holz, Jacob, and Leiser (Bottom row, left to right) Morenoff, Raimi, Shipan, Spencer, and Stevenson

News

Jacob and Stange: Getting free college right

Feb 9, 2024

Governor Gretchen Whitmer proposed making the first two years of community college free in Michigan in her 2024 State of the State AddressIn an opinion published in Bridge Michigan, Brian Jacob and Kevin Strange applaud Governor Whitmer for her...

Headshots of Brian Jacob and Kevin Stange

News

EPI conference looks at the dynamics of higher education and labor markets

Jan 31, 2024

“Achieving the alignment of what’s needed and what students are learning has profound implications for our shared economic prosperity. The United States is undergoing a massive workforce restructuring. While college affordability is really...

News

Data mining at USED: Updating old systems to inform new policy

Jan 30, 2024

Kevin Stange approached PhD student Nathan Sotherland in the summer of 2022 with an offer to join him in a unique assignment in the U.S. Department of Education (USED). As a part of the first cohort of economists to join the Office of Under...

News

Dr. Stange Goes to Washington

Sep 13, 2023

The Ford School is proud of its record of welcoming policymakers-in-residence. This past year, Ford School professor Kevin Stange played a different role – academic-in-residence. He had a one-year assignment working in the U.S. Department of...

State & Hill

Faculty News, spring 2023

May 3, 2023

Dominique Adams-Santos, Celeste Watkins-Hayes, and PhD candidate Kayonne Christy contributed a chapter, "Narratives in Context: Locating Racism and Sexism in Black Women's Health Experiences," to The Routledge Companion to...

Headshots of Kathryn M. Dominguez, Rusty Hills, Morela Hernandez, Brian Jacob, Barry Rabe, Megan Stewart, David Thacher, Christina Weiland

Publication

Groundbreaking data from College and Beyond II help researchers examine diverse college experiences

Jan 10, 2023

Researchers have known for decades that attending college is associated with wide-ranging benefits to individuals and society. What is not entirely clear are the mechanisms that connect these beneficial outcomes with the undergraduate experience....

State & Hill

COVID-19 and education: A tough time for all

Dec 19, 2022

Ford School education researchers look for answers By Shaun Manning From early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally altered public education in the United States. Many schools introduced remote learning for at least part of the 2020-2021...

Photo of a teacher in a classroom, speaking to a young student who is seated at their desk

State & Hill

An economic eye on equity in higher ed

Dec 19, 2022

As the first chief economist in the U.S. Department of Education, Ford School alumnus Jordan Matsudaira (PhD ’05), seeks to identify and implement policies that best promote student success—academically and financially—in higher education. Ford...

State & Hill

Faculty News, fall 2022

Dec 19, 2022

Jenna Bednar published “The Fractured Superpower: Federalism is Remaking U.S. Democracy and Foreign Policy,” in Foreign Affairs. The Coalition for Networked Information, the Association of Research Libraries, and EDUCAUSE awarded Paul Courant the...

Headshots of Brian Jacob, Paula Lantz, Katherine Michelmore, Jeffrey Morenoff, Susan D. Page, Shobita Parthasarathy, Natasha Pilkauskas, Joy Rohde, Joe Schwarz, and Fabiana Silva

State & Hill

Dot to dot

Dec 19, 2022

The Education Policy Initiative connects researchers and policymakers—helping make good use of their one-of-a-kind secure data clearinghouse By Daniel Rivkin A recent research project examined the ties between school funding and crime in...

Illustration of a bubble test sheet with bubbles filled in and lines connecting them like a circuitboard

State & Hill

Letter from Interim Dean Watkins-Hayes

Dec 19, 2022

Greetings from Ann Arbor! It’s been my great honor–and a lot of fun–to serve as interim dean of the Ford School, an outstanding community dedicated to the public good. This edition of State & Hill focuses on education policy—the research,...

Publication

Stange research quantifies “brain drain”

Sep 23, 2022

Many states invest heavily in their institutions of higher education only to see graduates leave for employment opportunities. To better understand that dynamic, Ford School Professor Kevin Stange and his colleagues developed a new measure of labor...

Photo of many rows of soon-to-be graduates seated in an auditorium

Publication

Stange examines data bias caused by college graduates' out-of-state migration

Sep 7, 2022

When examining the effect on the labor market of post-secondary education in a particular state, researchers often use administrative outcome data – statewide statistics that look at university graduates and the effect on their employment. Yet when...

News

Stange joins U.S. Department of Education office of chief economist for year-long assignment

Aug 22, 2022

Ford School professor Kevin Stange, faculty co-director of the Education Policy Initiative, has joined the U.S. Department of Education’s (USED) Office of the Chief Economist for one-year. He will be joining Ford School alum, Deputy Under Secretary...

News

EPI faculty and affiliates receive nearly $10 million through four national education research (NCER) grants

Jul 13, 2022

Four research projects conducted by affiliates of the Education Policy Initiative (EPI) at the University of Michigan received a total of nearly $10 million in new grants from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), U.S. Department of...

Headshots of Kevin Stange, Christina Weiland, Robin Jacob, and Daniel Kreisman

News

IES grant supports EPI in evaluation of Michigan’s Tuition Incentive Program impacts

Jul 13, 2022

The state of Michigan’s Tuition Incentive Program (TIP) has a unique structure that distinguishes it from other state need-based financial aid programs. Currently funding some 25,000 students annually, the program is a “first-dollar" scholarship...

Photo of the sun rising over the U-M campus

State & Hill

Faculty News, spring 2022

May 31, 2022

Arun Agrawal was selected as co-chair on the Intergovernmental Transformative Change Assessment, sponsored by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Javed Ali provided his expertise on national security to numerous...

Headshots of 10 Ford School faculty arranged in a grid

Publication

Stange and co-authors study cost differences across fields of study at colleges and universities

Apr 29, 2022

Determining the monetary value of an education often is calculated based on what students pay in tuition and fees compared to what they earn after graduation. But, Kevin Stange, Ford School associate professor of public policy, and four other...

In the Media

Stange comments on decreased enrollment rates

Mar 14, 2022 Bridge Michigan

Public school districts saw a drop in enrollment during the pandemic, with parents moving their students to private schools with COVID-19 rules parents were happier with. Enrollment rates are staying steady, a sign that those parents have decided to...

News

Pandemic effects on education in Michigan could endure - for better and worse

Feb 23, 2022

After all of the disruption in Michigan schools since the COVID-19 pandemic began – establishing remote learning curricula and the technical infrastructure needed to maintain it, lack of socialization among students, conflicts between school boards,...

Photo of a young, diverse group of masked students in a classroom

Publication

Working paper assesses employer perception of college majors and skills

Feb 1, 2022

What are the skills that employers expect college graduates to bring to the job? A new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper from Ford School professor Kevin Stange and doctoral candidate Shawn Martin, along with two other colleagues,...

Photo of a computer screen displaying an online listing of job ads

In the Media

EPI paper cited on COVID crisis in education

Jan 31, 2022 Washington Post

The Washington Post reported on the "crisis of epic proportions" being faced by public education across areas of absenteeism, enrollment, teacher shortages, and other issues, many brought on by the adjustments needed for remote learning caused by...

Photo of young students, each reading a book, seated around a small classroom table

State & Hill

Partnerships in focus: Learning and research collaborations that create better public policy

Dec 13, 2021

By Rebecca Cohen (MPP ‘09) Two-directional learning helps small businesses and students thrive Lily Hamburger (MBA ’16) supports economic mobility for entrepreneurs as the senior director of the pandemic-born Detroit Means Business, a...

State & Hill

Faculty News, fall 2021

Dec 13, 2021

The U-M Institute for Clinical & Health Research recognized John Ayanian with a 2020 Distinguished Clinical and Translational Research Mentor Award. Joshua Basseches received a grant from the Climate Social Science Network to continue working on...

Headshots of Ren Farley, Liz Gerber, Edie Goldenberg, Jon Hanson, Catie Hausman, John Leahy, Yusuf Neggers, Mara Ostfeld, Christina Weiland, and Dean Yang

In the Media

Public school pandemic choices have long-term funding implications, says Stange

Oct 5, 2021 The Detroit News

With school districts divided over whether to mandate masks for students or have in-person classes, parents are forced to make tough decisions. Some are pulling their students from public schools, a decision that Kevin Stange, associate professor of...