Brian McCall

Brian McCall

Professor of Education, Economics and Public Policy

Brian McCall is a professor of education, economics and public policy at the University of Michigan, where he holds appointments at the School of Education, Department of Economics and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. He is a visiting fellow at the Oxford Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies. McCall has been a visiting fellow at Cambridge University, Dalhousie University, and University of California, Berkeley as well as a professor at the University of Minnesota. He currently is a co-editor of Economics of Education Review.

McCall’s primary fields of interest are economics of education, program evaluation, and labor economics. His current research focuses on the effect of tuition subsidies on college attendance, the influence of family wealth on college attendance and completion, the effect of financial aid packages on college attendance, completion and subsequent labor market earnings, the influence of education on job displacement and subsequent earnings, the impact of unemployment insurance rules on unemployment durations and re-employment wages, and the determinants and consequences of repeat use of the unemployment insurance system.   

Educational background

  • Ph.D. Economics, Princeton University, 1988
  • M.A. Economics, Princeton University, 1986
  • B.A. Economics, University of California, Los Angeles, 1981. Graduated summa cum laude. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Professional affiliations

Current research

  • Economics of Education
  • Labor Economics
  • Applied Econometrics
  • Social Insurance
  • Health Economics.

Recent publications

  • Dennis A. Ahlburg and Brian P. McCall, 2021,"One Hundred Years of the Gender Gap in Examination Results at the University of Oxford," History of Education, 50(2):240-256.
  • Dennis A. Ahlburg and Brian P. McCall, 2020, "A Very English Revolution: The Impacts of Coresidence at the University of Oxford," History of Education, 49(5):682-706.
  • Stephanie Lluis and Brian P. McCall, 2019, "Employment and Job Search Implications of the Extended Weeks and Working While on Claim Pilot Initiatives," Canadian Public Policy/Analyse de politiques, 45(2):129-172.