Joshua Goodman

Joshua S. Goodman, Associate Professor of Public Policy, is an applied microeconomist studying human capital and education policy. His work has two major strands, exploring the determinants and long-run impacts of both college choice and STEM coursework.

His work has been published in outlets such as the Journal of Labor Economics, AEJ: Applied Economics, the Journal of Public Economics, the Journal of Human Resources and the Journal of Economic Perspectives. It has also been cited in multiple White House reports and featured in the New York Times and the Washington Post, and on National Public Radio. He is a research fellow of NBER and CESifo; is affiliated with Harvard's Program in Education Policy and Governance, Inequality and Social Policy Group, and Center for Education Policy and Research; and serves on the advisory boards of the Committee for Economic Development and the Moving to Opportunity Fund.

Goodman received a B.A. in physics from Harvard University, an M.Phil. in education from Cambridge University, and a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University. Prior to his Ph.D. studies, he was a public high school math teacher in Watertown, MA.

Selected Publications

Academic Journal/Scholarly Articles

• Goodman, Joshua, Michael Hurwitz, and Jonathan Smith. "Access to Four-Year Public Colleges And Degree Completion." Journal of Labor Economics (2017).
• Goodman, Joshua. "Skills, Schools, and Credit Constraints: Evidence from Massachusetts." Education Finance and Policy 5.1 (Winter 2010): 36-53.
• Castleman, Benjamin, and Joshua Goodman. "Intensive College Counseling and the Enrollment and Persistence of Low Income Students." Education Finance and Policy (May 2016).
• Cortes, Kalena, Joshua Goodman, and Takako Nomi. "Intensive Math Instruction and Educational Attainment: Long-Run Impacts of Double-Dose Algebra." Journal of Human Resources 50.1 (Winter 2015): 108-158.
• Cohodes, Sarah R., and Joshua S. Goodman. "Merit Aid, College Quality, and College Completion: Massachusetts' Adams Scholarship as an In-Kind Subsidy." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 6.4 (October 2014): 251-285.
• Goodman, Joshua. "The Wages of Sinistrality: Handedness, Brain Structure, and Human Capital Accumulation." Journal of Economic Perspectives 28.4 (Fall 2014): 193-212.
• Goodman, Joshua. "Who merits financial aid?: Massachusetts' Adams Scholarship." Journal of Public Economics 92 (2008): 2121-2131.

HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series

• Goodman, Joshua. "The Labor of Division: Returns to Compulsory High School Math Coursework." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP17-004, Janaury 2017.
• Goodman, Joshua, Melkers, Julia, and Pallais, Amanda. "Can Online Delivery Increase Access to Education?" HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP16-035, September 2016.