About Charles T. Clotfelter

Charles T. Clotfelter (born August 20, 1947) is an economist and the Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of Public Policy Studies and Professor of Economics and Law at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, where he has taught since 1979. He is also director of the Center for the Study of Philanthropy and Voluntarism at Duke and is a research associate for the National Bureau of Economic Research. His primary research interests include the economics of education, the nonprofit sector, tax policy and public finance.

During his time at Duke, Clotfelter has served as vice provost for academic policy and planning (1983-1985), vice chancellor (1985-1988) and vice provost for academic programs (1993-1994). He also has served as president of the Southern Economic Association and was a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation for the 2005-06 year. He was ranked among the most influential scholars in the nation’s dialogue on education in the 2014 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence List.

Prior to teaching at Duke, Clotfelter taught at the University of Maryland from 1974 to 1979, spending his last year on leave as a Brookings Economic Policy Fellow at the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Analysis.

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Clotfelter grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. He graduated summa cum laude from Duke University with a B.A. in 1969. He then studied at Harvard University, receiving an M.A. in 1972 and PhD in economics in 1974.