About

Jeffrey T. Denning is an associate professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin, along with an M.S.. in Economics from the same institution and a B.A. in Economics & Mathematics from Brigham Young University. His research focuses on the economics of education, with particular emphasis on higher education policy issues such as financial aid, admissions, and college completion. He serves as the Associate Director for Research at the University of Texas at Austin Education Research Center, which manages administrative education and earnings data for the state of Texas. Additionally, he is a member of the National Bureau of Economic Research, CESifo, and IZA. Previously, he held positions as an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Notre Dame and Brigham Young University.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Geography
• Engineering
• Public relations
• Medical education
• Social psychology
• Business
• Psychology
• Accounting
• Medicine

Selected publications

• Easy A’s, Less Pay: The Long-Term Effects of Grade Inflation

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• A Family Affair: The Effects of College on Parent and Student Finances

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• The graduation part II: Graduate program graduation rates

  Journal of Public Economics · 2025-07-04 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This paper documents several facts about graduate program graduation rates using administrative data covering public and nonprofit graduate students in Texas. Only 58 % of students entering a graduate program in 2004 graduated within 6 years. Between the 2004 and 2013 entering cohorts, graduate student completion rates grew by 10 percentage points. Graduation rates vary widely by field of study, ranging from an average of 81 % for law programs to 53 % for education programs. We also find large differences in graduation rates between institutions. On average, 72 % of students who entered programs in flagship public universities graduated in 6 years compared to only 57 % of those who entered programs in non-research intensive (non-R1) institutions. Graduate students who do not complete may face negative consequences due to lower average earnings and substantial levels of student debt. • We document several new facts about graduation rates for graduate school. • 58 % of students entering a graduate program in 2004 graduated within 6 years. • From 2004 to 2013, graduate student completion rates grew by 10 percentage points. • Graduation rates are very different across programs and by school selectivity. • Students who do not complete often accumulate substantial student debt.

  PublisherDOI

• Same Crime, Different Time: Disparities in Judicial Outcomes for DWI Offenders

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2025-10-01

  reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  We examine disparities in judicial outcomes among people charged with Driving While Intoxicated (DWI), a setting in which legal guilt is objectively determined by breath alcohol content (BrAC).Focusing on first-time offenders with no aggravating circumstances and BrAC above the legal threshold, we find that race, gender, and financial resources strongly predict the likelihood of incarceration and case dismissal.Defendants with greater socioeconomic advantage are more likely to access rehabilitative alternatives and avoid criminal records.We discuss how these outcome differences may reflect not only disparities in options offered by the court, but also in defendants' choices among them.

  PublisherDOI

• A Family Affair: The Effects of College on Parent and Student Finances

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2025-02-01

  reportOpen access

  Paying for college is often a family affair, with both parents and students contributing. We study the effects of college on family finances using administrative data on the universe of federal aid applicants in California linked to credit records. We provide the first comprehensive analysis of how both students and their parents use debt with college attendance and how prices affect those decisions. We start by using an event-study framework to explore how parents’ use of debt and credit outcomes change after their child first submits a federal aid application for college enrollment. While total debt does not change, higher-income parents shift balances from other debt to educational loans. We find that lower-income parents take out more education loans, experience less delinquency on non-educational debt, and see their credit scores rise. We then use discontinuities in eligibility for generous financial aid to test how an exogenous change in the price of college affects parental debt and financial health. We find that parents finance increases in the price of college through educational loans as well as home equity loans. Higher prices increase parental delinquency on debt. The findings highlight an important channel by which college and its rising cost may spill over into the broader financial health of families and economy.

  PublisherDOI

• Same Crime, Different Time: Disparities in Judicial Outcomes for DWI Offenders

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Graduation Part Ii: Graduate School Graduation Rates

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Graduation Part II: Graduate School Graduation Rates

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2024-07-01 · 4 citations

  reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This paper documents several facts about graduate program graduation rates using administrative data covering public and nonprofit graduate students in Texas.Despite conventional wisdom that most graduate students complete their programs, only 58 percent of who started their program in 2004 graduated within 6 years.Between the 2004 and 2013 entering cohorts, graduate student completion rates grew by 10 percentage points.Graduation rates vary widely by field of study-ranging from an average of 81 percent for law programs to 53 percent for education programs.We also find large differences in graduation rates across institutions.On average, 72 percent of students who entered programs in flagship public universities graduated in 6 years compared to only 57 percent of those who entered programs in non-research intensive (non-R1) institutions.Graduate students who do not complete may face negative consequences due to lower average earnings and substantial levels of student debt.

  PublisherDOI

• The Graduation Part II: Graduate School Graduation Rates

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Effects of Higher Student Loan Limits on Access to High-Earnings Graduate Programs

  AEA Papers and Proceedings · 2023-05-01 · 3 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Graduate student debt is the predominant form of financial aid for postbaccalaureate students and represents almost half of outstanding student debt, yet little is known about the effect of publicly funded graduate loans on student outcomes. To fill this gap, we examine the creation of the federal Graduate PLUS Student Loan program, which effectively eliminated loan limits for graduate students. Using a difference-in-difference identification strategy and administrative data on graduate students entering public and nonprofit universities in Texas, we show that access to additional liquidity through Grad PLUS had no effect on underrepresented students' access to high-earnings graduate programs.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Benjamin Marx

  54 shared

• Lesley Turner

  The Patients Association

  53 shared

• Richard Murphy

  23 shared

• Sandra E. Black

  Sunnybrook Health Science Centre

  10 shared

• Eric R. Eide

  Brigham Young University

  9 shared

• Lesley J. Turner

  8 shared

• Felix Weinhardt

  8 shared

• Sarena Goodman

  Federal Reserve

  6 shared