About Us

The Centre for the Economics of Education was established in March 2000 and receives core funding from Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills .

The CEE is a multidisciplinary centre with three partners: The Centre for Economic Performance at LSE; the Institute for Fiscal Studies; and the Institute of Education. All three partners have a proven and distinguished track record in the economics of education and training, and a great breadth of knowledge on policy relevant issues relating to education, training and the labour market.

The CEE seeks to undertake systematic and innovative research in the field of the economics of education by applying the latest techniques of empirical analysis. We look at a broad range of questions including why people invest in education and training, the way education systems are organized, and the impact of education and skill acquisition on economic and social outcomes. Our programme covers education at all stages of people’s lives.

The research is heavily orientated towards doing empirical work which can inform policy by taking questions to the data. We apply (and develop) a range of methodological approaches for this purpose, from evaluation methods, statistical analysis of large-scale micro-data sources, through to more detailed case study work.

In the time since our establishment we have made a substantial contribution across many areas. These include: returns to education; adult learning; the link between family background and educational attainment; the effects of school choice and competition; the ‘value’ of primary education as reflected in the housing market; the labour market for teachers; intergenerational mobility and educational inequality; evaluation of many government policies. Research papers can be downloaded from the CEE Discussion Paper series. A good overview of much of our work will be found in our book “What’s the Good of Education” (available to buy from Amazon.co.uk)

Work is now being undertaken on areas including the ‘Every Child Matters’, and Children’s Workforce strategies the Government programme for a national framework to support the "joining up" of children’s services; on the impact of education on Social Mobility; Further and Higher Education; the UK Resiliency Programme. In addition to projects undertaken as part of the CEE agenda, researchers in CEP are involved in many other research projects related to education and skills.

The CEE is headed by Professor Stephen Machin, an expert in the economics of education and currently Professor of Economics at University College London. He is the Research Director at the Centre for Economic Performance and is affiliated with the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Sandra McNally is the Director of the Education and Skills programme at CEP.

Details of CEE projects from 2005 onwards and of our plans for 2008 onwards are available on the CEE research projects pages. In addition to this, we also give some examples of other projects which are currently being investigated by CEP researchers.