Grey Professorship. He received his B.A. in Economics from Hope College in 2001 and his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Florida in 2006. His primary areas of research are labor economics and the economics of education, where he focuses on questions that have direct relevance for public policy. His research has been published in top economics journals including American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Public Economics, and Review of Economics and Statistics, and has been covered by numerous media outlets. He is currently an Associate Editor at the Journal of Human Resources. He also holds appointments as a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and as a Research Fellow at IZA, and was awarded the 2012 IZA Young Labor Economist Award.