Mark C. Long began his role as Dean of the UCR School of Public Policy (SPP) in January 2023, following the successful tenure of Anil Deolalikar, who served as Founding Dean of SPP.
From 2004-2022, Long was Professor of Public Policy and Governance and Adjunct Professor of Economics at the University of Washington. He served as the Evans School of Public Policy and Goverance's Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs (2018-19) and Associate Dean for Research (2016-18). Long served on the faculty of George Washington University as an assistant professor of economics and public policy and administration from 2002-04.
Long was elected in 2019 to the Washington State Academy of Sciences. He served Vice President and Executive Council Member and Policy Council Member of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, on the Board of Directors of the Association for Education Finance and Policy, Managing Editor and Co-Editor of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Associate Editor of the American Educational Research Journal, Deputy Editor of Demography, Interim Director of the West Coast Poverty Center, and Executive Committee Member of the University of Washington’s Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology.
Long holds a Ph.D. and MA in Economics from the University of Michigan, an MPP from the University of Michigan, a secondary teaching credential via UCLA, and a BA in Studio Art from DePauw University.
Long’s research examines the effects of public policies on economic opportunity and efficient social mobility, with emphasis on estimating the benefits and costs of those policies. His education-related research focuses on: (1) the effects of high school course-taking and school and college quality on test scores, educational attainment, labor market outcomes, and family formation and other behaviors; (2) the effects of college financial aid on college entry and household savings; (3) gender disparities in educational attainment; and (4) the effects of affirmative action and alternative college admissions policies on college entry. He additionally studies: (1) the impact of Seattle’s minimum wage law and the effects of altruism on the value of life for use in benefit-cost analysis. He has previously worked on the economics of nursing labor markets and manufacturing firms’ wage and productivity dynamics. He has publications in numerous journals including American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Journal of Human Resources, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Econometrics, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Public Administration Review, PLoS One, American Educational Research Journal, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Educational Researcher, and Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness.
Long was the winner of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management’s 2002 Ph.D. Dissertation Award for the Best Ph.D. Dissertation in Public Policy and Management, the recipient of the American Educational Research Association’s Palmer O. Johnson award for “the highest quality of academic scholarship published in one of the [four] AERA journals during the 2008 volume year,” and co-recipient of the 2014 Wilder School Award for Scholarship in Social Equity and Public Policy Analysis (co-sponsored by the National Academy of Public Administration and the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs) “for exemplary published scholarly articles that advances the public’s understanding of social equity.”
Long’s research has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, fivethirtyeight.com, Politico, Forbes, Chronicle of Higher Education, U.S. News and World Report, and numerous other outlets.