David Figlio

Gordon Fyfe Professor of Economics and Education University of Rochester

  • Rochester NY

Figlio is an expert on educational, public, and social policy, including the link between health and education.

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Spotlight

1 min

In the News: School Choice and Vouchers

A Trump administration proposal to use the federal tax code to offer vouchers that students could use to attend private secular or religious schools has reignited public debate over school choice. David Figlio, a professor of economics and education at the University of Rochester whose research on vouchers has been widely cited, is available to offer insight on the matter. A recent study he co-authored on a school choice program in Ohio showed that low-income children in the program were likely to realize significant and positive academic benefits. Figlio warned in an interview with National Public Radio, though, that the results need to be taken “with a grain of salt.” “This program was a highly targeted program that bears little resemblance to the statewide, universal vouchers that are being rolled out today,” he said. Figlio’s research spans a wide range of education and health policy issues, from school accountability and standards to welfare policy and the intersection between education and health. Contact Figlio by clicking on his profile.

David Figlio

Areas of Expertise

Vouchers
School Choice
Community Engagement
Teaching
K-12 Education
Higher Education
Higher Education Economics
Health and Education
Professoriate
Faculty Diversity
Educational Leadership

Media

Biography

David Figlio is an internationally recognized economist and educational leader whose interdisciplinary research spans educational, public, and social policy, including the link between health and education. He conducts research on a wide range of education and health policy issues from school accountability and standards to welfare policy and policy design, as well as the interrelationship between education and health. He also studies aspects of the academic profession itself, with recent papers on academic peer review and the publication process. He collaborates frequently with state and local health and education agencies, and recently led a National Science Foundation-sponsored national network to facilitate the use of matched administrative datasets to inform and evaluate education policy.

Figlio has published his work in numerous leading journals, including the American Economic Review, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, JAMA Pediatrics, Review of Economics and Statistics, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, and Journal of Human Resources. Organizations supporting his research include the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Education, and Health and Human Services, as well as the Annie E. Casey, Doris Duke Charitable Trust, Gates, Laura and John Arnold, MacArthur, Smith Richardson, and Spencer foundations, among others.

At the University of Rochester, Figlio holds a primary appointment in the Department of Economics and a joint professorship at the Warner School of Education.

Education

George Washington University

BS

Business

University of Wisconsin-Madison

PhD

Economics

University of Wisconsin-Madison

MS

Economics

Selected Media Appearances

9 things to know about the big, private-school voucher plan in Republicans' tax bill

NPR  radio

2025-05-23

David Figlio, a voucher researcher at the University of Rochester in New York, sums up their effectiveness this way: "The best studies find zero to negative impacts on test scores among participants."

The Urban Institute recently published a study of an early voucher program in Ohio that had been targeted to students in low-rated schools. With many years having passed since the voucher students were in school, the researchers were able to see that they "were substantially more likely to enroll in college than students who remained in public schools (64 versus 48 percent)" and were more likely to earn a bachelor's degree (23 versus 15%).

Those findings come with a caveat, says David Figlio, who co-authored the study.

"This program was a highly targeted program that bears little resemblance to the statewide, universal vouchers that are being rolled out today. Therefore you need to take these results with a grain of salt."

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Long the Star Pupils, Girls Are Losing Ground to Boys Girls have suffered greater test-score declines than boys

Wall Street Journal  print

2025-01-06

Girls have lost ground in reading, math and science at a troubling rate, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of student test scores across the country.

The findings suggest that pandemic learning loss hit girls particularly hard in ways that haven’t been addressed by schools. The most recent test scores show that girls haven’t yet recovered. This comes following longstanding gains for girls and women in educational attainment.

Shutting down schools might have hurt girls more because they tend to do better in school generally, said David Figlio, a professor of economics and education at the University of Rochester who has studied gender gaps in education. “Girls have a comparative advantage in school and you take schools away, they’ll suffer more,” he added.

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New Research: Immigrant Students Boost English Learners’ Academic Performance

LA School Report  print

2024-12-23

“What are the effects of immigrants on communities?” asked David Figlio, professor of economics and education at the University of Rochester, in a recent interview with The 74. “Especially those that are ‘new immigrant destinations’ that have not historically had large numbers of foreign-born residents? This paper directly addresses one of the most important potential mechanisms through which immigrant students might affect incumbent students — the consequences of increased linguistic diversity in the classroom.”

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