David Gardner Chair of Higher Education, Director of the Center for Studies in Higher Education, Professor of Public Policy & Economics, Carmel P. Friesen Chair of Public Policy
Jesse Rothstein is Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he holds the Carmel P. Friesen Chair in Public Policy and the David Pierpont Gardner Chair in Higher Education and directs the Center for Studies in Higher Education. He previously served as Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor and as Senior Economist with the Council of Economic Advisers, Executive Office of the President. From 2015-2020, he was director of...
Nearly half of California community college students report struggling with food insecurity. SNAP food benefits (known as CalFresh in California) can help reduce student hunger. Alleviating hunger among students should lead to improved educational outcomes, but rigorous research on this topic remains scarce. Our recent study (The Impact of Nutrition Assistance on College Student Success) helps to close that gap, using a compelling matching design with...
Berkeley, May 4, 2026 – Community college students who receive CalFresh during their first year of college are more likely to stay on track academically and return for a second year, according to a new working paper from the California Policy Lab and the Center for Studies in Higher Education.
The research finds that students who maintained CalFresh benefits throughout their first year were more likely to complete a full-time course load (30 or more credits) and more likely to enroll...
The study evaluates the impact of Local Programs to Increase Employability (LPIE), a student exemption designed to expand CalFresh eligibility. The authors found that the LPIE designation has been particularly effective for University of California graduate students, increasing the share of...
A recent report by the Inside Higher Education entitled "Beyond Tuition: The Hidden Costs of College and Their Disproportionate Impact" cited CSHE ROPS Editor and External Relations Specialist Shanshan Jiang-Brittan's research on the affordable student housing crisis.
"'High-rise, high-amenity private developments near campuses may be attractive, but affordable they’re not. Often occupied by affluent international and out-of-state domestic students, these properties can also drive up the entire local housing market.' That’s what Shanshan Jiang-Brittan of UC Berkeley, who...
This paper analyzes the need for providing additional undergraduate enrollment capacity at the University of California (UC) and of alternatives for gaining such capacity at UC and, by extension, other public research universities. In addition to the creation of new campuses, other approaches are capable of giving significant additional capacity as well. Some of these approaches are congruent with academic objectives; others are substantially neutral in that regard; and others probably do lessen the academic experience. A desirable approach is to have new campus sites continually...
Though the rise in college student debt often has been blamed on rising tuition, a radical shift in student financial aid--from a system relying primarily on need-based grants to one dominated by loans--has been equally important. Numerous reports have highlighted the burdens faced by students who borrow large sums, but less is known about students who are averse to borrowing. For these students, the increasing prominence of loans could actually narrow their options and decrease their chances of attending and completing college. Given the increasingly important role of student loans...
Although a stunning success in many ways, California’s 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education has been a conspicuous failure in one respect: California ranks near the bottom of the states in the proportion of its college-age population that attains a baccalaureate degree. California’s poor record of B.A. attainment is an unforeseen consequence of the Master Plan’s restrictions on access to 4-year baccalaureate institutions. In a cost-cutting move, the framers of the Master Plan restricted eligibility for admission to the University of California and the state colleges (later the...
Like Berkeley, the UC system as a whole is quickly running out of space to accommodate the next generation of Californians who will be reaching college age by mid-century. Even with the added capacity at UC Merced, the UC system will run out of space on existing campuses in the next decade. In the normal course of events, this would trigger planning for another new general campus. Yet at a time when the university is still reeling from the effects of the Great Recession, the wisdom of an expensive new general campus is questionable. The need now is to rebuild and reinvest in existing...
Returns to education have received much attention from scholars as well as policy makers and the media. It is a well-established fact that educational attainment improves employability and wages and that university graduates better than their less educated counterparts. However, the educational expansion rises the importance of the horizontal dimension in explaining social stratification. The field of study has proved to be an important factor for graduates’ labor market performance in many countries. This paper discusses the differences in the labor market outcomes in early careers of...
