* 2023: On leave in the US Department of Education Chief Economist office *
Rajeev Darolia, PhD holds the Wendell H. Ford Professorship of Public Policy and is a Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of Kentucky. He serves as Associate Director of Martin School of Public Policy and Administration, Associate Director of the UK Center for Poverty Research, and Associate Dean of the Graduate School.
Professor Darolia is a Visiting Scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, a Research Fellow at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics, a Research Affiliate at the UK Center for Poverty Research, and a 2018 National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow. He serves as an Associate Editor for Education Finance & Policy, is past Associate Editor of the Review of Higher Education and is on the editorial boards of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Journal of Higher Education, and Educational Researcher. In 2021, Professor Darolia served as the Advisor for Economic and Higher Education Policy Analysis and Data for the US Department of Education Negotiated Rulemaking Affordability and Student Loans Committee.
Professor Darolia’s current research interests include questions about how public policy affects educational decisions and outcomes, and more broadly, economic mobility and financial security. Professor Darolia publishes research across public policy, economics, and education journals, including in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, and Journal of Public Economics. His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, US Department of Labor, Arnold Ventures, Spencer Foundation, and Walton Family Foundation, among others.
Professor Darolia teaches classes in causal research methods and program evaluation. He routinely advises nonprofit organizations and federal, state, and local policymakers on regulatory, research, and policy topics.
Prior to joining the faculty at UK, Dr. Darolia was an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and of Education at the University of Missouri and served as the Director of Research for the Institute of Public Policy. In his professional life before academia, he worked as an economist and financial analyst in Washington, DC and Silicon Valley.
Dr. Darolia received a PhD in Public Policy from George Washington University where he was recognized with the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Association for Education Finance and Policy. He also holds a master’s degree in economics and a bachelor’s degree in finance.
When not inverting matrices, Professor Darolia is probably proofing dough with his 5- and 7-year old pâtissier partners.