Elizabeth Burland
Assistant Research Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Public Policy
Elizabeth Burland is an interdisciplinary scholar using mixed-methods research to investigate at the intersection of social policy, wealth and income inequality, and educational decision-making. Her work aims to understand how interactions between individuals' social, economic, and institutional environments and the policy context contribute to (or reduce) inequality.
Academic Background
Elizabeth Burland earned her Ph.D. in Public Policy and Sociology from the University of Michigan. She is currently an Assistant Research Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Public Policy, and a research affiliate with the University of Michigan’s Education Policy Initiative and PIRL. Elizabeth’s expertise is in combining experimental and quasi-experimental methods with systematically collected qualitative interviews to best understand educational decision making, conduct comprehensive policy evaluation, and center both causal inference and student voices in policymaking.
Elizabeth’s work investigates how federal, state, and institutional policies may reduce the relationship between wealth or income and educational attainment. Much of her work investigates the intersection between family and institutional supports with policy design to understand both how policy can shift decision-making, and where it comes up short at meeting the needs of young adults. For example, some of her work uses experimental evaluation coupled with qualitative methods to understand the role of older siblings in shaping the college and career decisions of their younger siblings. In other work, Elizabeth investigates the role of administrative burdens on take-up of state-wide financial aid programs, and the ability of front-line administrators to relieve burdens faced by students and families.
Her research that has been published in the American Economic Review: Insights explores the mechanisms behind the design of effective financial aid policies, aiming to understand the elements necessary to remove barrier students face to enrolling in selective institutions. Building on her experimental work, Elizabeth’s qualitative work aims to understand the process by which students make postsecondary choices, including the factors that matter most in their decision-making, to understand how policy can better support student decisions. Her work has been funded by the Russell Sage Foundation and the Institute of Education Sciences.