Kevin Stange

Kevin Stange is a Professor of Public Policy and Education (by courtesy) at the University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy, where he serves as co-director of the Education Policy Initiative and director of the PhD Program. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a faculty affiliate of the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the Marsal Family School of Education.

His educational background includes:

• Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1999)
• Ph.D. in Economics, University of California, Berkeley (2008)

Stange's research focuses on empirical labor and public economics within education contexts. He investigates how higher education shapes labor market trajectories, geographic mobility, and responses to skill demand shifts. Current projects examine Michigan's financial aid programs and college major impacts on career outcomes, utilizing large-scale datasets like College and Beyond II to analyze postsecondary pathways and institutional effectiveness.

His recent publications (2023-2025) emphasize college major effects on earnings inequality, financial aid efficacy, community college transfer pathways, and graduate mobility patterns. These works leverage administrative data to address policy-relevant questions about educational equity and labor market alignment.

Key recognition includes:

• Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research

Stange has secured major funding from the U.S. Department of Education, National Science Foundation, Spencer Foundation, W.T. Grant Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Russell Sage Foundation. During 2022-2023, he served as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education, applying his research expertise to federal policy.

He co-directs the Education Policy Initiative, which produces evidence-based research for education practitioners, and spearheaded the College and Beyond II dataset containing 50 million course records from 19 universities. This resource enables comprehensive analysis of student pathways and institutional effectiveness across diverse higher education contexts.