Profile
Isaac McFarlin, Jr. received his Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University and is Assistant Professor of Economics. His research interests lie in the fields of education and labor economics.
Professor McFarlin’s focus is in four areas: (1) access to higher education and college choice, (2) the impact of college remediation on academic and employment success, (3) returns to schooling and (4) inequality and economic discrimination.
Dr. McFarlin is conducting a first investigation of how college districts promote access to higher education. Community college districts are “special-purpose” taxing districts that help fund brick-and-mortar campuses. District residents receive discounted tuition. Today, 38 percent of Texas K-12 students do not live in college districts.
Using a quasi-experimental research design, comparing students on opposite but adjacent sides of district boundaries, he will assess their causal effect on college entry, degree completion, future earnings and the extent students are diverted from four-year colleges, for high school graduates, especially those in high poverty neighborhoods. The results will help inform the Texas legislature’s deliberations in 2007 on establishing rules for expanding college districts.
Dr. McFarlin’s work is currently funded by the Smith Richardson and Spencer Foundations and the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. He is actively involved with the Texas Schools Project.
Awards
Visiting Scholar, Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin – Madison, 2007
Professional Organizations
- American Economic Association
- American Educational Research Association
- Western Economic Association
Courses
- ECO 2302 Principles of Microeconomics
- ECO 3304 Basic Research Techniques in Economics
- ECO 4340 Introduction to Labor Economics and Human Resources
- ECO 4355 Introductory Econometrics
Media Expertise
- College Remediation
- Community College Districts
Current Funded Research
Principal Investigator, “The Effect of Tuition on 2-Year College Enrollments: A Regression-Discontinuity Approach,” Spencer Foundation, 2005-2007, ($40,000).
Principal Investigator, “What is the Value of Cum Laude? An Application of Regression-Discontinuity to Latin Honors” W.E. Upjohn Institute, 2006-2008, ($5,000).
Principal Investigator, “Help or Hindrance? A Quasi-Experimental Analysis of College Remediation” Smith Richardson Foundation, 2006-2009, ($160,000).
Publications
“Do School Teacher Parents Make a Difference?” Economics of Education Review (forthcoming).
“Help or Hindrance? The Effect of Mandatory College Remediation” with Paco Martorell, manuscript.
- Updated: October 17, 2006
