About

Evan Riehl joined the ILR School at Cornell University in 2017 as an Assistant Professor of Economics. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University and a B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis. His research is in labor economics with a focus on higher education. Riehl has contributed to understanding various aspects of the labor market, including the value of college education, the impact of college reputation on labor market outcomes, and the incentives embedded in standardized testing. His work has been published in reputable journals such as the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, the Journal of Public Economics, and the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. Riehl's research also explores the returns to time off after high school and the benefits of placement into higher-achieving classes for college students.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Psychology
• Mathematics education
• Economics
• Political Science
• Demographic economics
• Accounting
• Medicine
• Labour economics
• Medical education
• Management
• Law
• Statistics
• Business
• Mathematics
• Actuarial science

Selected publications

• Disparate Impacts of Teacher Certification Exams

  Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Working Papers · 2026-02-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Disparate Impacts of Teacher Certification Exams

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2026-02-01

  reportOpen access

  We use Texas administrative data to assess the long-standing claim that teacher certification exams discriminate against underrepresented minority (URM) candidates.In a regression discontinuity design, we find that failing a certification exam delays entry into teaching and costs the average candidate$10,000 in forgone earnings.These costs fall disproportionately on URM candidates both because they are more likely to fail and because their earnings losses from failing are 50 percent larger on average.To examine whether these disparities are justified by racial/ethnic differences in teaching quality, we develop a new measure of disparate impact and estimate it using a policy change that increased the difficulty of Texas' elementary certification exam.The harder exam reduced the URM share of new teachers but had no significant benefits for teaching quality or student achievement.Taken together, our findings show that certification exams have a disparate impact in the sense that they impose much larger economic costs on URM teaching candidates than on white candidates with similar potential teaching quality.

  PublisherDOI

• Disparate Impacts of Teacher Certification Exams

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Should States Reduce Teacher Licensing Requirements? Evidence from the Rise of For-Profit Training Programs in Texas

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2025-09-01

  reportOpen accessSenior author

  We provide a comprehensive analysis of a Texas policy that relaxed teacher licensing requirements and created a large for-profit training industry.Using detailed administrative data, we show that forprofit-trained teachers have higher turnover and lower value-added than standard-trained teachers.But the policy significantly increased the supply of certified teachers, reducing schools' reliance on uncertified teachers with even worse outcomes.Exploiting variation in policy exposure across schools, we find a zero net impact on student achievement due to these offsetting forces.Thus lower licensing requirements improved access to teaching and reduced training costs without harming students.

  PublisherDOI

• Reducing School Dropout in Honduras

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2025-06-11

  dataset
  PublisherDOI

• Should States Reduce Teacher Licensing Requirements? Evidence from the Rise of For-Profit Training Programs in Texas

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Reducing School Dropout in Honduras

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2025-06-11

  dataset
  PublisherDOI

• Democratização do ensino: os desafios e dilemas das ações afirmativas nas universidades públicas brasileiras

  2025-02-20

  article
  PublisherDOI

• The Returns to STEM Programs for Less-Prepared Students

  American Economic Journal Economic Policy · 2024-05-01 · 5 citations

  articleSenior author

  The returns to selective STEM programs depend on whether students complete these programs, earnings conditional on completion, and counterfactual schooling choices. Much research has focused on only one of these margins, potentially leading to an incomplete picture of the returns to STEM education for students with less academic preparation. Using data from a Colombian university and two empirical strategies, we find less-prepared students have higher earnings returns to selective STEM programs than more-prepared students, even though they are less likely to complete these programs. A key mechanism is that less-prepared students have lower-paying counterfactual schooling options. (JEL I23, I26, J24, J31, O15)

  PublisherDOI

• Stakes and Signals: An Empirical Investigation of Muddled Information in Standardized Testing

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Juan Saavedra

  National Bureau of Economic Research

  25 shared

• Miguel Urquiola

  24 shared

• W. Bentley Macleod

  Columbia University

  9 shared

• W. Bentley MacLeod

  National Bureau of Economic Research

  6 shared

• Cecilia Machado

  Fundação Getulio Vargas

  4 shared

• Germán Morong Reyes

  Universidad Bernardo O'Higgins

  4 shared

• Nicolás de Roux

  2 shared

• Nicolas Roux

  2 shared