David Deming (economist)

David J. Deming is an American political scientist and university administrator. He is a professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School,^[1] professor of education and economics at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Faculty Co-director of the Project on Workforce at Harvard.^[2][3] His research focuses on the economics of education in general and the impact of education policies on long-run non-test score outcomes. In 2018, David Deming received the David N. Kershaw Award and Prize from the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management for his work in the areas of secondary education, vocational training and skills.^[4] On May 13, 2025, Deming was announced as the incoming Dean of Harvard College, succeeding Rakesh Khurana. He began his tenure on July 1, 2025.^[5][6]

David Deming earned a B.S. in economics and a B.A. in political science from Ohio State University in 2002, followed by a M.P.P. from UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy in 2005 and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) in 2010. After his Ph.D., Deming joined Carnegie Mellon University as assistant professor of public policy and economics before moving to the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) as assistant and later as associate professor. Since 2016, Deming has been a full professor of both HGSE and HKS. He became director of the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at HKS in 2019.^[7] He is affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research, CESifo, and J-PAL,^[8] and is a Principal Investigator of the CLIMB Initiative,^[9] which seeks to use big data analysis to identify higher education policies and programmes in support of students. In 2020, Deming and his wife Janine Santimauro were named the faculty deans of Kirkland House.^[10] He was announced as Dean of Harvard College on May 13, 2025, and announced the same day he would be resigning as dean of Kirkland House.^[11]

David Deming's research interests centres on the economics of education, with a focus on early childhood, primary and secondary education as well as the long-term non-test score outcomes of education policies.^[12]

• Deming has performed editorial duties for the Journal of Human Resources, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy and the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics.^[13]
• In 2018, his research was awarded the David N. Kershaw Award and Prize by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

• Homepage of David Deming
• Webpage of David Deming on the website of Harvard University
• Google Scholar page of David Deming