Rucker Johnson

Rucker C. Johnson is an American economist currently serving as Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy in the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also a faculty research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and the W.E. B. Du Bois Institute of Harvard College as well as a Research Affiliate of the National Poverty Center and the Institute for Poverty Research. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences^[1] and the National Academy of Education,^[2] and was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.^[3] He won the 2017 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship^[4] and also the 2022 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Education (a $100,000 prize) for his 2019 book “Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works,” written with Alexander Nazaryan.^[5]

Rucker C. Johnson
Academic career
Field	Labor Economics Education Economics
Institution	Goldman School of Public Policy
Alma mater	University of Michigan MA, 1997; PhD 2002 Morehouse College BA, 1995
Website	https://gspp.berkeley.edu/faculty-and-impact/faculty/rucker-johnson

Education and early life

Johnson is one of three children of Carol R. Johnson, former superintendent of schools in Boston, Memphis, and Minneapolis, and history teacher Matthew Johnson.^[6][7][8] He attended Morehouse College, graduating in 1995, and completed his MA and PhD degrees in economics at the University of Michigan in 2002.

Research

Johnson's research focuses on disparities in education and economic outcomes--both the causes and the consequences of these disparities.^[2] In his book, "Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works," he argues that integration improved the academic and life outcomes of black students--especially because it affected the same students who benefitted from the early years of the Head Start Program--but meaningful school integration in the United States lasted for only 10-15 years in the 1970s and 1980s.^[9] In work with Kirabo Jackson and Claudia Persico, he found that court-ordered increases in school resources affected school graduation rates, college-completion rates, and adult earnings for the affected children.^[6] He has also studied the costs and benefits of incarceration, finding that as incarceration rates increased to high levels, the impact on crime reduction fell.^[6]

Selected works

• Johnson, Rucker C. Children of the dream: Why school integration works. Hachette UK, 2019.
• Jackson, C. Kirabo, Rucker C. Johnson, and Claudia Persico. "The Effects of School Spending on Educational and Economic Outcomes: Evidence from School Finance Reforms." The Quarterly Journal of Economics 131, no. 1 (2016): 157-218.
• Johnson, Rucker C., and Robert F. Schoeni. "The influence of early-life events on human capital, health status, and labor market outcomes over the life course." The BE journal of economic analysis & policy 11, no. 3 (2011).
• Johnson, Rucker C., and C. Kirabo Jackson. "Reducing inequality through dynamic complementarity: Evidence from Head Start and public school spending." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 11, no. 4 (2019): 310-49.
• Johnson, Rucker, and Steven Raphael. "How much crime reduction does the marginal prisoner buy?." The Journal of Law and Economics 55, no. 2 (2012): 275-310.
• Johnson, Rucker C., and Mary E. Corcoran. "The road to economic self‐sufficiency: Job quality and job transition patterns after welfare reform." Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 22, no. 4 (2003): 615-639.
• Johnson, Rucker C., and Robert F. Schoeni. "Early-life origins of adult disease: national longitudinal population-based study of the United States." American journal of public health 101, no. 12 (2011): 2317-2324.
• Johnson, Rucker C., Ariel Kalil, and Rachel E. Dunifon. "Employment patterns of less-skilled workers: Links to children’s behavior and academic progress." Demography 49, no. 2 (2012): 747-772.

References

1. "Honoring Excellence, Electing New Members". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. 22 April 2021. Retrieved 2021-12-14.
2. "Rucker Johnson". National Academy of Education. Retrieved 2021-12-14.
3. "2021 AAPSS Fellows Announced". AAPSS. 2021-03-09. Retrieved 2021-12-14.
4. "Rucker Johnson – California Policy Lab". 4 April 2017. Retrieved 2021-12-14.
5. Fitzpatrick, Denise (2021-12-09). "Researcher of school integration wins Grawemeyer education award | UofL News". UofLNews. Retrieved 2021-12-14.
6. Clement, Douglas. "Rucker Johnson interview: Powering potential | Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis". www.minneapolisfed.org. Retrieved 2021-12-14.
7. "Dr. Carol Johnson". City Year. Retrieved 2021-12-14.
8. "MATTHEW ULYSSES JOHNSON Jr. Obituary (2013) The Commercial Appeal". Legacy.com. Retrieved 2021-12-15.
9. Phenicie, Carolyn. "74 Interview: Professor Rucker Johnson on How School Integration Helped Black Students — and How Much More Is Possible When It's Paired With Early Education & Spending Reforms". Retrieved 2021-12-14.

External links

• The Success of Integrating Schools with Rucker Johnson -- In the Living Room with Henry E. Brady. In this interview with Goldman School of Public Policy Dean Henry E. Brady, Johnson explains how he and his team analyzed the impact of not just integration, but school funding policies, and the Head Start program. Recorded on 1/09/2019
• Rucker Johnson: Why School Integration Works. POLICY TALKS @ THE FORD SCHOOL, April 17, 2019
• Rucker C Johnson, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, gave a talk about his new book, Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works in the Mason Hall auditorium on the Hopkins Homewood campus on Friday, October 18, 2019. Professor Johnson’s new book utilizes a variety of data and longitudinal studies to show that, contrary to the popular narrative, school integration worked and benefited children of all racial backgrounds. Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott, Cristina Duncan Evans, the Chair of the Teacher Chapter of the Baltimore Teachers Union Executive Board, and Eric Rice, Assistant Professor of Education at Johns Hopkins served as respondents.