Charles Clotfelter

Charles T. Clotfelter is the Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of Public Policy Studies, Professor of Economics, and Professor of Law at Duke University, where he has taught since 1979.  Dr. Clotfelter is Director of the Center for the Study of Philanthropy and Voluntarism at Duke and is a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research. Dr. Clotfelter is is a member of the CALDER North Carolina team.

Dr. Clotfelter’s major research interests are the economics of education, the nonprofit sector, public finance and tax policy. He is the author of After Brown: The Rise and Retreat of School Desegregation (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004); Buying the Best: Cost Escalation in Elite Higher Education (Princeton University Press, 1996); and Federal Tax Policy and Charitable Giving (University of Chicago Press, 1985).  His recent CALDER publications include papers on teacher credentials and student achievement, the distribution of teachers across high/low-poverty schools, and school desegregation.

Dr. Clotfelter has previously taught at the University of Maryland, spending his last year there on leave at the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Tax Analysis, where he was a Brookings Economic Policy Fellow. While at Duke, he has served as Vice Provost for Academic Policy and Planning, Vice Chancellor, and Vice Provost for Academic Programs. Dr. Clotfelter has also served as President of the Southern Economic Association. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University.