Benjamin Castleman

About

Ben Castleman is a professor of public policy and education at the University of Virginia. His research focuses on policies and strategies to improve postsecondary educational and workforce outcomes for individuals from lower-income communities. Castleman conducts this research through collaborative research-policy partnerships with public agencies and organizations at the local, state, and federal levels. His current work focuses on innovations to increase economic mobility among lower-wage adults and on the economic and life outcomes generated by intensive college advising programs.

Castleman’s research has appeared in top journals, including The American Economic Review, The Journal of Labor Economics, The Journal of Public Economics, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He is a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. His research has been generously supported by numerous philanthropic foundations and has received extensive media coverage, including The New York Times, National Public Radio, and The Washington Post.

Before returning to graduate school, Castleman was a public school teacher and administrator in Providence, RI.

Recent papers include:

• Increasing Degree Attainment among Low-Income Students: The Role of Intensive Advising and College Quality (American Economic Review)
• Behavioral nudges prevent loan delinquencies at scale: A 13-million-person field experiment (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)
• Stacking the Deck for Employment Success: Labor Market Returns to Stackable Credentials (Journal of Human Resources)
• Do Financial Incentives Increase the Take-Up and Impact of Large-Scale Programs? Experimental Evidence from a National College Advising Initiative (Working paper)
• Noncredit Workforce Training, Industry Credentials, and Labor Market Outcomes (Working paper)