Experts

Economics professor Amanda Griffith’s research focuses on the economics of higher education. In particular, on students’ choices of type of college and major, and how this affects their labor market outcomes. She also studies how institutional policies, such as financial aid and institutional spending, can affect the distribution and success of students enrolled at a college or university.

Her most recent study, “The Effect of Institutional Expenditures on Employment Outcomes and Earnings,” showed that, for colleges and universities looking for the most return on investment, spending on faculty salaries and student services make it significantly more likely that a graduate will not only gain full-time employment, but also land a job that closely matches their skill set formed in college.

Additional research includes work in mathematical economics in learning what groups have different guessing and risk-taking behaviors and how these play out in arenas such as the standardized test setting and whether or not a person chooses to get a flu shot.

Griffith has recently been awarded an NSF grant to study how students’ peers and role models, both from the student and faculty populations within each major, can affect students’ choice of major.