Steven Hemelt

Steven Hemelt is a Professor in the Department of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Hemelt’s primary fields of interest are the economics of education, education policy, labor economics, and program evaluation. His current research investigates policy-malleable factors that shape students’ trajectories, especially at points of transition—such as from high school to college—and during periods of consequential investment in the skills and opportunities necessary to secure strong footing in adulthood (e.g., postsecondary study). This work aims to better understand how policies and programs can promote positive economic, educational, and social outcomes for students, as well as reduce sociodemographic disparities in such outcomes. Hemelt is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), a Fellow in the CESifo Research Network, and a Senior Researcher at the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER). He previously served as an Associate Editor of Education Finance and Policy and a member of the Board of Directors of the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP).