learning economics
Angrist with his Nobel medal. © Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Risdon Photography
By Melissa Eppihimer
Joshua Angrist's Nobel-Prize Winning Research ECONOMIC RESEARCH HAS SHOWN THAT
spent time in Israel, including as a member of the Israeli
STUDENTS WHO DROP OUT OF SCHOOL will
Defense Forces, before earning his PhD from Princeton
typically earn less income than those who complete the
University in 1989. In the years since, he has pioneered
required years of study. Oddly enough, one of the co-
the analysis of natural economic experiments.
authors behind this research figured out a way to skip his senior year of high school. When Joshua Angrist
This means Angrist uses real-world data to understand
realized he needed just a few courses to graduate from
the effects of specific policy choices, like permitting
Taylor Allderdice High School, he left after 11th grade.
children to leave school when they turn 16 or 17. Because a class cohort is made up of students with
“Ironically, I was a terrible student,” said Angrist, who
birthdays randomly distributed throughout the year,
grew up in Squirrel Hill North, near the border with
some students will age out and be able to leave school
Shadyside. He attended Linden and Wightman Schools
before others. Because of this, it is possible to study
and graduated from Allderdice in 1977. Recalling his
how additional schooling affects earning outcomes,
high school years, Angrist remembers most exploring
as Angrist and his colleague Alan Krueger did. Angrist
Frick Park or visiting Rhoda’s Deli on Murray Avenue.
has also investigated the impact of mandatory military
Of his time at the lunch spot, he said, “we called Mr.
service on income, class sizes on student learning, and
Fisher, the principal of Allderdice, ‘The Hook’ because
school admissions practices (like exams and lotteries) on
he would catch us there and drag us back.”
closing the “achievement gap.”
Angrist is now a Nobel Prize winner in Economics and
Despite his own “exception-that-proves-the-rule”
a professor at MIT. After high school, he worked for a
experience as a young student, education is central to
while before enrolling at Oberlin College in Ohio, where
Angrist’s professional life. He teaches economics to
he developed an interest in economics. Angrist then
students at MIT, where he leads Blueprint Labs,
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