Scott E. Carrell
Professor of Economics
Co-Faculty Director, California Education Lab
Faculty Athletics Representative

Jump to the sections below:
Biography
Contact Information
Teaching
Publications
Research in Progress
Curriculum Vitae (PDF file)
Google Scholar Page

Brief Biography

Scott Carrell is a Professor of Economics, the Co-Faculty Director of the California Education Laboratory and the Faculty Athletics Representative at the University of California, Davis. He received his BA from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1995, an M.A. in Economics and an M.S. in Management from the University of Florida in 2002, and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Florida in 2003. He previously taught at Dartmouth College and the U.S. Air Force Academy and served as the Senior Economist for Public Finance and Labor Economics on the staff of the President's Council of Economic Advisers during the summer of 2004. Professor Carrell is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Research Fellow at Institute for the Study of Labor, and a Co-Editor for the Journal of Human Resources. He spent ten years as an active duty officer in the U.S. Air Force and retired from the U.S. Air Force Reserve as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2015. His primary area of research is in the economics of education.

Contact Information

Department of Economics
University of California
One Shields Ave
Davis, CA 95616

Office: 1148 SSH
Phone: (530) 752-5480
Fax: (530) 752-9382
Email: secarrell@ucdavis.edu

Teaching

• Principles of Microeconomics

• Graduate Public Economics

Peer Reviewed Publications

• "Knowing What It Takes: The Effect of Information About Returns to Studying on Study Effort and Achievement," Forthcoming, Economics of Education Review. (with D. Rury)
  (pdf copy)

• "My Professor Cares: Experimental Evidence on the Role of Faculty Engagement," Forthcoming, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. (with M. Kurlaender)
  (PDF Copy)

• "Curriculum reform and the Common Core: Evaluating elementary math textbooks using student achievement data," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (JPAM), Volume 39, Issue 4, Fall 2020, pages 966-1019. (with D. Blazar, B. Heller, T. Kane, M. Polikoff, D. Staiger, D. Goldhaber, D. Harris, R. Hitch, K. Holden, & M. Kurlaender))
  (PDF copy)

• "The Impact of College Diversity on Behavior Toward Minorities ,"American Economic Journal: Economic Policy Volume 11 (4), 2019, pages 159-82. (with M. Hoekstra and J. West)
  (PDF copy)

• "The Long-run Effects of Disruptive Peers," American Economic Review, Volume 108, No. 11, November 2018, Pages 3377-3415. (with M. Hoekstra and E. Kuka)
  (PDF copy)

• "TAs Like Me: Racial Interactions between Graduate Teaching Assistants and Undergraduates," Journal of Public Economics, Volume 159, March 2018, Pages 203-224. (L. Lusher and D. Campbell)
  (PDF copy)

• "Estimating the Productivity of Community Colleges in Paving the Road to Four-Year College Success ," Forthcoming in Productivity in Higher Education, edited by Caroline Hoxby and Kevin Stange. (with M. Kurlaender)
  (PDF copy)

• "Why Do College Going Interventions Work?" American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 9(3): 124-51, July 2017. (with B. Sacerdote)
  (PDF copy)

• "The Promises and Pitfalls of Measuring Community College Quality," The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 2(1), 174-190 (2016). (with M. Kurlaender and J. Jackson)
  (PDF copy)

• "Are School Counselors an Effective Education Input?," Economics Letters, 125 (2014) 66-69. (with M. Hoekstra)
  (PDF Copy)

• "In Harms Way? Payday Loan Access and Military Personnel Performance," Review of Financial Studies, (2014) 27 (9): 2805-2840. (with J. Zinman)
  (PDF Copy)

• "From Natural Variation to Optimal Policy? The Importance of Endogenous Peer Group Formation," Econometrica. 81(3): 855-882, 2013. (with B. Sacerdote and J. West)
  (PDF Copy)

• "Family Business or Social Problem? The Cost of Unreported Domestic Violence," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. Volume 31, Issue 4, pages 861-875, Fall 2012 (with M. Hoekstra)
  (PDF Copy)

• "A's from Zzzz's? The Causal Effect of School Start Time on the Academic Achievement of Adolescents," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 3(3): 1-22, August 2011. (with T. Maghakian and J. West)
  (PDF Copy)

• "Is Poor Fitness Contagious? Evidence from Randomly Assigned Friends," Journal of Public Economics, Volume 95, Issues 7-8, August 2011, 657-663. (with M. Hoekstra and J. West)
  (PDF Copy)

• "Does Drinking Impair College Performance? Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Approach," Journal of Public Economics, Volume 95, Issues 1-2, February 2011, 54-62. (with M. Hoekstra and J. West)
  (PDF Copy)

• "Does Professor Quality Matter? Evidence from Random Assignment of Students to Professors," Journal of Political Economy, Volume 118, No. 3, 409-432, June 2010. (with J. West)
  (PDF copy) (NBER Working Paper Version) featured in InsideHigherEd.com, July 11, 2008

• "Sex and Science: How Professor Gender Perpetuates the Gender Gap," Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 125, Issue 3, August 2010. (with M. Page and J. West)
  (PDF copy) (NBER Working Paper version) featured in Slate , June 5, 2009

• "Externalities in the Classroom: How Children Exposed to Domestic Violence Affect Everyone's Kids," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2(1):211-228, January 2010. (with M. Hoekstra)
  (PDF copy) (Publication Link) (NBER Working Paper version) featured in The New York Times: Freakonomics, July 31, 2008

• "Does Your Cohort Matter? Measuring Peer Effects in College Achievement," Journal of Labor Economics, 27(3): 439-464, July 2009. (with R. Fullerton and J. West)
  (PDF copy) (NBER Working Paper version)

• "Politics and the Implementation of Public Policy: The Case of the Military Housing Allowance Program," Public Choice, Volume 138, Number 3-4, March 2009, 367-386. (with J. Hauge)
  (PDF copy)

• "Peer Effects in Academic Cheating," Journal of Human Resources. Volume XLIII, Number 1, Winter 2008, 173-207. (with J. West and F. Malmstrom)
  (PDF copy)

• "The National Internal Labor Market Encounters the Local Labor Market: Effects on Employee Retention," Labour Economics, Volume 14, Issue 5, October 2007, Pages 774-787.
  EALE Prize for the best paper published in Labour Economics during the period 2006-2007.
  (PDF copy) (Available at ScienceDirect)

• "A Sequential Equilibrium for the Army's Targeted Selective Reenlistment Program," Human Resource Management,, Vol 46, No 1, Spring 2007, 21-34. (with J. West)
  (PDF copy) (Available at Wiley InterScience)

• "Do Lower Student to Counselor Ratios Reduce School Disciplinary Problems?," Contributions to Economic Analysis & Policy: Vol. 5: No. 1, Article 11, 2006. (with Susan Carrell)
  (PDF copy) (Available at BE Press)

• "Optimal Compensating Wages for Military Personnel," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Fall 2005. (with J. West)
  (PDF copy) (Available at Wiley InterScience)

Other Publications

• "Strengthening the Road to College: California?s College Readiness Standards and Lessons from District Leaders," Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) , Research Report, November 2019. (with M. Kurlaender & S. Reed) (Link)

• "Learning by the Book: Comparing math achievement growth by textbook in six Common Core States," Research Report. Cambridge, MA: Center for Education Policy Research, Harvard University, March 2019. (with D Blazar, B. Heller, T. Kane, M. Polikoff, D. Staiger, D. Goldhaber, D. Harris, R. Hitch, K. Holden, & M. Kurlaender) ) (Link)

• "Where California High School Students Attend College," Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) , Research Report, December 2018. (with M. Kurlaender, S. Reed, K. Cohen, P. Martorell, & M. Naven) (Link)

• "Community College Quality: The Promises and Pitfalls of Measurement," Wheelhouse: The Center for Community College Leadership and Research, 2(3), 2018. (with M. Kurlaender & J. Jackson)
  (PDF copy)

• "How Can We Expand College Going and Retention? Mentoring, Nudges, and Information," Communities & Banking, 2(1), Spring 2016. (with B. Sacderdote)
  (PDF copy)

• "Domino Effect," Education Next, Volume 9, Number 3, Summer 2009. (with M. Hoekstra)
  (PDF copy)

Research in Progress

• "Clubs and Networks in Economics Reviewing," Revisions Requested, Journal of Political Economy. (with D. Figlio and L. Lusher)
  (pdf copy)

• "Unpacking p-Hacking and Publication Bias," Revisions Requested, American Economic Review. (with A. Brouder, D. Figlio and L. Lusher)
  (pdf copy)

• "Brains Versus Brawn: Ordinal Rank Effects in Job Training," Revisions Requested, Journal of Public Economics. (with A. Chesney)
  (pdf copy)

• "Congestion on the Information Superhighway: Does Economics Have a Working Papers Problem?" Conditionally Accepted, Journal of Public Economics. (with L. Lusher and W. Yang)
  (pdf copy)

• "The Impact of School Quality on Postsecondary Success: Evidence in the Era of Common Core," Working Paper. (with M. Kurlaender, P. Martorell, and M. Naven)
  (coming soon)

• "Minimum Wage and Higher Education," Working Paper. (with L. Lusher and A. Li)
  (coming soon)

• "Peer Review Exhibits the Gambler?s Fallacy," Working Paper. (with D. Figlio and L. Lusher)
  (pdf copy)

• "How do Students and Schools Respond to Early Signals of College Readiness," In Progress. (with M. Asim, B. Ballis, M. Kurlaender, & P. Martorell)
  (coming soon)

• "Pocket Aces: Commitment and Incentives Against Smartphones for Students," In Progress. (with B. Aksoy and L. Lusher)
  (coming soon)

• Major Disappointment: A Large-Scale Experiment on (Non-)Pecuniary Information and Major Choice," In Progress. (with L. Lusher & D. Rury)
  (PDF Copy)

Scott Carrell's Department homepage
Send comments or report broken links to secarrell@ucdavis.edu
Revised April 4, 2023