Eric Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University and one of the world's foremost scholars on the economics of education. Over a career spanning five decades, his research has fundamentally shaped education policy across both developed and developing nations.
In 2021, Hanushek received the Yidan Prize for Education Research, the world's most prestigious award in the field. He directed the prize funds to establish the Africa Fellows in Education Program, a capacity-building initiative designed to strengthen education policy expertise across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Research Contributions
Hanushek's scholarship—encompassing more than 300 widely cited articles and 26 books—addresses critical issues including teacher effectiveness, school accountability, resource allocation, and the economic returns to education quality. He pioneered the measurement of teacher quality through student achievement growth, establishing the analytical foundation for value-added models now used worldwide to evaluate teachers and schools.
His influential books include The Knowledge Capital of Nations: Education and the Economics of Growth, which demonstrates how cognitive skills—rather than mere years of schooling—drive long-term economic prosperity; Universal Basic Skills: What Countries Stand to Gain, which quantifies the transformative economic impact of ensuring all students master foundational competencies; and Schoolhouses, Courthouses, and Statehouses, examining how school finance litigation and reform can improve educational outcomes. His earlier works, including Endangering Prosperity and the multi-volume Handbook of the Economics of Education, have established the standards for rigorous empirical analysis in the field.
Academic Appointments and Service
Hanushek is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, area coordinator for Economics of Education at CESifo, and a research fellow at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics. He has held faculty positions at the University of Rochester, Yale University, and the U.S. Air Force Academy.
His public service includes serving as chair of the National Board for Education Sciences (2008–2010), Deputy Director of the Congressional Budget Office (1983–1985), a commissioner on the U.S. Department of Education's Equity and Excellence Commission, and a member of the National Assessment Governing Board (2019–2023).
Honors and Recognition
Hanushek is a member of the National Academy of Education and the International Academy of Education, and a fellow of the Society of Labor Economists and the American Educational Research Association. He received the Thomas B. Fordham Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in 2004.
A Distinguished Graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, he served as an Air Force officer from 1965 to 1974 and earned his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.