Stephanie Riegg Cellini

Areas of Expertise

• Labor economics
• Education policy
• Postsecondary education
• For-profit colleges
• Federal student aid

Stephanie Riegg Cellini is a professor of public policy and economics in the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at The George Washington University. She is the editor of Education Finance and Policy, a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. She previously served as a fellow with the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Education and Labor. Her research focuses on higher education policy and the for-profit sector specifically. Recent papers examine the labor market outcomes of for-profit college students and the impact of federal student aid on tuition. Dr. Cellini’s work has been published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics,the American Economic Journal: Policy, and the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, among others and covered in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and other major media outlets.  Dr. Cellini teaches Benefit-Cost Analysis and Economics for Public Decision-Making in the Trachtenberg School. She earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles and a B.A. in public policy from Stanford University. 

Education

PhD, Economics, University of California, Los Angeles
MA, Economics, University of California, Los Angeles
BA, Public Policy, Stanford University

Publications

Selected Publications

Cellini, Stephanie Riegg, Rajeev Darolia, and Lesley J. Turner, “Where Do Students Go When For-Profit Colleges Lose Federal Aid?” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, May 2020, 12(2): 46-83.

Cellini, Stephanie Riegg and Nicholas Turner, “Gainfully Employed? Assessing the Employment and Earnings of For-Profit College Students Using Administrative Data,” Journal of Human Resources, Spring 2019, 54(2): 342-370.

“The Case for Limiting Federal Student Aid to For-Profit Colleges” (with Cory Koedel), Journal of Policy Analysis and Management: Point/Counterpoint, Fall 2017, 36(4): 934-942.

“High Costs, Low Resources, and Missing Information: Explaining Student Borrowing in the For-Profit Sector” (with Rajeev Darolia), Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, May 2017, 671(1): 92-112.

“The Labor Market Returns to a For-Profit College Education” (with Latika Chaudhary), Economics of Education Review, December 2014, 43: 125-140.

“Does Federal Student Aid Raise Tuition? New Evidence on For-Profit Colleges”(with Claudia Goldin), American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, November 2014, 6(4): 174-206.

“School Quality and Information Disclosure: Evidence from the Housing Market” (with Paul Carrillo and Richard Green), Economic Inquiry, July 2013, 51(3): 1809-1828.

“For-Profit Higher Education: An Assessment of Costs and Benefits” National Tax Journal, March 2012, 65(1): 153-180.

“Financial Aid and For-Profit Colleges: Does Aid Encourage Entry?” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Summer 2010, 29(3): 526-552.

“The Value of School Facility Investments: Evidence from a Dynamic Regression Discontinuity Design” (with  Fernando Ferreira and  Jesse Rothstein), Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 2010, 125(1): 215-261.

“Crowded Colleges and College Crowd-Out: The Impact of Public Subsidies on the Two-Year College Market,” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, August 2009, 1(2): 1-30.

“The Dynamics of Poverty in the United States: A Review of Data, Methods, and Findings” (with Signe-Mary McKernan and  Caroline Ratcliffe) Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Summer 2008, 27(3): 577-605.

“Causal Inference and Omitted Variable Bias in Financial Aid Research: Assessing Solutions,” Review of Higher Education, Spring 2008, 31(3): 329-354.

“Smoothing the Transition to College? The Effect of Tech-Prep Programs on Educational Attainment,” Economics of Education Review, August 2006, 25(4): 394-411.

“School Quality, Neighborhoods, and Housing Prices” (with Thomas J. Kane and Douglas O. Staiger), American Law and Economics Review,Summer 2006, 8(2): 183-212.

Books

Demography, Education, and the Workforce (with Robert I. Lerman), Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2009: 167 pages.

Distinctions

Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), Economics of Education Program

Nonresident Senior Fellow, the Brookings Institution, Governance Studies

Editor, Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press

Classes Taught

PPPA 6003  Economics for Public Decision-Making
PPPA 6015  Benefit-Cost Analysis