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

Cell phone bans in schools
Educational Leadership
Faculty Diversity
Professoriate
Health and Education
Higher Education Economics
Higher Education
K-12 Education
Teaching
Community Engagement
School Choice
Vouchers

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

Test scores in U.S. schools are down. Are smartphones to blame?

NPR  

2025-12-18

"I'm 55 years old, and when my phone buzzes in my pocket, I have to resist the temptation to look at that text," says David Figlio, a professor of economics at the University of Rochester who studies education policy. "Now imagine you're a 14 year old."

While research has yet to establish a direct link between the rise of students' use of smartphones and declining scores, West, Figlio and others say the timing certainly raises questions.

"If we have these extremely addictive devices on our person 24 hours a day or near us 24 hours a day," Figlio surmises, "this has to be one of the contributing factors."

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Immigration enforcement appears to hurt test scores, and not just for immigrant students: study

Chalkbeat  online

2025-11-10

Dramatic increases in immigration arrests could be hurting students in the classroom, including U.S. citizen students from Spanish-speaking households, according to a new study by University of Rochester economist David Figlio and Umut Özek of the Rand Corporation. “This is not turning a kid who was knocking it out of the park into a kid who is struggling academically, but it does appear to be a drag on kids who were already struggling,” Figlio said.

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School Cellphone Bans Work for Children

The Wall Street Journal  print

2025-10-31

Roughly half the 50 U.S. states have imposed some form of cellphone ban in school classrooms, on the logic that fewer distractions result in more learning. Now comes a study from researchers David Figlio from the University of Rochester and Umut Özek from Rand Corporation showing that a ban can raise student test scores and attendance.

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