Ben Ost

About

Ben Ost is a professor of economics at the University of Illinois, Chicago, where he studies education policy and labor economics. His research uses large administrative datasets and quasi-experimental methods to examine how education and labor-market institutions affect educational success and economic opportunity. His work has been published in leading academic journals, including the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Journal of Labor Economics, and Review of Economics and Statistics, and has been featured in media outlets, including The New York Times.

Ost’s research in higher education examines the economic returns to college, the determinants and consequences of students’ fields of study, academic probation, college completion, and the effects of performance-based funding policies. A central focus of this work is understanding how students’ educational choices and experiences shape their subsequent labor-market outcomes. He has also studied the labor-market consequences of educational credentials and how employers and workers interact in the labor market. Across these areas, his work emphasizes the use of empirical evidence to identify causal effects and inform debates over the design and effectiveness of public policy.

Ost’s research in K–12 education examines teacher quality, teacher labor markets, and student achievement. This work includes studying how teachers’ characteristics and experiences affect student outcomes, how schools recruit and retain teachers, and how the composition of the teacher workforce influences students. More broadly, his research investigates how education policies and institutions shape the opportunities available to students from different backgrounds.