Christopher Walters

Walters' research has focused on the economics of education, evaluating the effectiveness of charter schools, early childhood education programs, and school choice initiatives. His studies have often used randomized lotteries and economic choice models to assess the impact of educational interventions on student outcomes and the links between these effects and educational choices. He explored charter schools, particularly the KIPP network, which employed a "No Excuses" model, showing positive impacts on student achievement, especially for disadvantaged groups like limited English proficiency (LEP) and special needs students. His work suggested these schools were more effective in urban settings.^[4][5] In his research on early childhood education, he analyzed Head Start, finding it beneficial for children who otherwise wouldn't attend preschool, particularly when offering full-day services and home visits.^[6][7] His research on school choice, specifically the Louisiana Scholarship Program, showed negative effects due to low-quality private schools entering the program.^[8] Additionally, he studied the long-term impacts of a universal preschool program in Boston, finding positive effects on college attendance and behavioral outcomes, but no significant impact on test scores.^[9] He evaluated India's Integrated Child Development Services, showing that increasing staffing improved educational and health outcomes for children.^[10]

Walters' research also spans key areas of labor economics and econometrics, with a focus on experimental methods, causal inference, and policy evaluation. In econometrics, he explored the use of instrumental variables (IV) and control function (CF) methods to estimate local average treatment effects (LATE), and studied settings with multiple instruments and heterogeneity in treatment effects.^[11][12] His work in labor economics used experiments and empirical Bayes methods to study employer- and job-level discrimination by race and gender.^[13][14] His findings also revealed significant heterogeneity in discrimination across employers, while also offering practical tools to monitor discrimination efficiently.^[15]

• Angrist, J. D., Pathak, P. A., & Walters, C. R. (2013). Explaining charter school effectiveness. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 5(4), 1–27.
• Kline, P., & Walters, C. R. (2016). Evaluating public programs with close substitutes: The case of Head Start. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 131(4), 1795–1848.
• Abdulkadiroğlu, A., Pathak, P. A., & Walters, C. R. (2018). Free to choose: Can school choice reduce student achievement?. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 10(1), 175–206.
• Abdulkadiroğlu, A., Pathak, P. A., Schellenberg, J., & Walters, C. R. (2020). Do parents value school effectiveness?. American Economic Review, 110(5), 1502–1539.
• Kline, P., Rose, E., & Walters, C. R. (2022). Systemic discrimination among large US employers. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 137(4), 1963–2036.