This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. Journal of Economic Literature
  4. December 2002
  5. Identity and Schooling: Some Lessons for the Economics of Education

Journal of Economic Literature

ISSN 0022-0515 (Print) | ISSN 2328-8175 (Online)

Identity and Schooling: Some Lessons for the Economics of Education

  • George A. Akerlof
  • Rachel E. Kranton
Journal of Economic Literature
vol. 40, no. 4, December 2002
(pp. 1167–1201)
Download Full Text PDF

Abstract

This review culls noneconomic literature on education--by sociologists, anthropologists, and practitioners to present a new economic theory of students and schools. This theory elaborates two themes that have eluded economic analysis. First is the student as decision-maker whose primary motivation is her identity. Second is a conception of the school as a social institution. This framework suggests a new perspective on questions such as resource allocation and school reform. It explains why some educational policies succeed and others fail. We show how sociological variables may affect outcomes, and suggest ways economists can incorporate them into theoretical and empirical research.

Citation

Akerlof, George, A., and Rachel E. Kranton. 2002. "Identity and Schooling: Some Lessons for the Economics of Education ." Journal of Economic Literature, 40 (4): 1167–1201. DOI: 10.1257/002205102762203585

JEL Classification

  • I21 Analysis of Education