Jane Waldfogel is the Compton Foundation Centennial Professor of Social Work and Public Affairs at Columbia University School of Social Work and a visiting professor at the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics. Waldfogel received her Ph.D. in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

She has written extensively on the impact of public policies on child and family well-being. Her books include Britain’s War on Poverty (Russell Sage Foundation, 2010), Steady Gains and Stalled Progress: Inequality and the Black-White Test Score Gap (Russell Sage Foundation, 2008), What Children Need (Harvard University Press, 2006), Securing the Future: Investing in Children from Birth to College (Russell Sage Foundation, 2000), and The Future of Child Protection: How to Break the Cycle of Abuse and Neglect (Harvard University Press, 1998).

She is also the author of more than 100 articles in leading academic journals including the American Economic Review, American Educational Research Journal, American Sociological Review, Child Development, Demography, Economic Journal, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Population Economics, Monthly Labor Review, and Pediatrics.

Her current research includes studies of work-family policies, fragile families and child well-being, improving the measurement of poverty, income-related gaps in school readiness, and inequality in early child outcomes in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada.

She joined IZA as a Research Fellow in November 2011.