- Phone:
- (812) 855-5599
- Email:
- ashlyn@indiana.edu
- Research areas:
- Methods Econometrics and Data Management
- Policy Analysis
- Areas of Interest:
- Causes and consequences of inequality in housing and education
- Social justice
- School finance
- Housing finance
SPEA 410F
Education
- Ph.D., Economics of Education, Stanford University, 2005
- M.A., Economics, Stanford University, 2003
- B.A. ( summa cum laude) Economics; B.S. (magna cum laude) Business Administration, University of Southern California, 2001
Courses
- Public Program Evaluation
- Statistical Analysis for Effective Decision-Making
Biography
Dr. Ashlyn Aiko Nelson is an economist who studies how housing markets and financial institutions and policies influence the education market. Her research examines the causes and consequences of inequality in the overlapping housing and public education sectors. Nelson's work, funded with support from the MacArthur Foundation and the National Science Foundation, has been published in outlets including the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Review of Economics and Statistics, Review of Financial Studies, Economics Letters, Education Finance and Policy, and Public Administration Review. Nelson joined the O'Neill faculty in 2009. She also holds courtesy appointments in Economics and in Education Leadership and Policy Studies.
Prior to her current appointment, Nelson completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the Center for Education Policy Analysis at Stanford University. In addition to her academic background, Nelson formerly served as Assistant Vice President of Analysis and Information Management at Bank of America, served as the fair lending officer at IndyMac Bank, and earned her teaching credential while teaching eighth and eleventh grade English in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Highlights
- Inaugural Recipient of (2015) Most Personable Award, O'Neill Student Choice Awards
- MacArthur Foundation. "The effects of housing instability on children's educational outcomes." Award amount: $800,058. 2011-2013.
- National Science Foundation. "Predatory lending, predatory borrowing, and the mortgage crisis: Evidence from loan-level data from a large bank." Award amount: $624,993. 2009-2011.
- Editorial Board, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management
- Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Scholar
- Edu-Scholar Public Presence Rankings 2013 (ranked among university-based academics who are contributing most substantially to public debates about K-12 and higher education)
- Scholar-Activist Connect Scholar: Center for Responsible Lending and American Council on Consumer Interests, 2011. Award amount: $1,000.
- O'Neill Faculty Teaching Award: Excellence in Graduate Instruction (2011)
- Western Finance Association: Analysis Group Award for the Best Paper on Financial Institutions and Markets, 2010. Award amount: $5,000.
- Three year Stanford Graduate Fellowship
In the News
- "Nation's Wealthy Places Pour Money into Public Schools, Study Finds" - New York Times, October 21, 2014.
- "State Board to Consider New A-F School Grade Formula" - WIBC, October 15, 2014
- "Pence Ends Common Core In Indiana, Though It Was Ending Anyway" - WIBC, March 24, 2014
- "Applications Double for Indiana Private School Vouchers" - WFIU Indiana Public Media, September 25, 2013.
- "The Kids are All Right (Sometimes): The Housing Crisis and Children's Academic Performance" - The Huffington Post, September 15, 2013.
Selected Works
- “The rise of school-supporting nonprofits,” (with B. Gazley). Education Finance & Policy, 9 (4): 541-566. (2014)
- “Local government responses to fiscal stress: Evidence from the public education sector,” (with R. Balu) Public Administration Review, 74(5): 601-614. (2014)
- “Securitization and loan performance: A contrast of ex ante and ex post relations,” (with W. Jiang and E. Vytlacil). Review of Financial Studies, 27(2): 454-483 (2013)
- “Liar’s loan? Effects of origination channel and information falsification on mortgage delinquency,” (with W. Jiang, W. and E. Vytlacil). Review of Economics and Statistics, 96(1): 1-18. (2014) *Lead article and recipient of the Western Finance Association’s 2010 Analysis Group Award for the Best Paper on Financial Institutions and Markets.
- “Delinquency model predictive power among low-documentation loans,” (with W. Jiang and E. Vytlacil). Economics Letters, 120(2): 171-173 (2013)
- “Credit scores, race, and residential sorting,”Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 29(1): 39-68 (2009). Republished: “Home sweet home: Recent research in housing & community development policy,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management Virtual Issue (2010)
