Mark Lopez is a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland's School of Public Affairs. Professor Lopez received his Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University in 1996. He specializes in labor economics, the economics of education, training programs, and econometrics. Professor Lopez’s research has focused on the impact of bilingual education programs on long-term student achievement, the impacts of vocational education on student achievement, estimating the returns to speaking a second language, and the neighborhood effects of immigrants on the educational achievement of natives. He has published works in READ Perspectives, the Public Interest, and the opinion section of the Los Angeles Times. He has also appeared on NPR’s Marketplace and WBAL’s Bruce Elliot Show. His work on the labor market impacts of bilingual education has been written about in the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Wall Street Journal, the Brownsville Herald, and the Washington Times. Professor Lopez has also testified before Congress about his bilingual education research. Professor Lopez has also presented his work on bilingual education and vocational education at several professional conferences in economics and public policy. He recently spent a year as a Visiting Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California in San Francisco examining the impact of Proposition 227 on California's limited English proficient student population. Professor Lopez joined the faculty at the School of Public Affairs in 1995. He currently teaches courses in Microeconomics, PUAF 640, and Advanced Econometrics, PUAF 611. He has also worked closely with the development and implementation of the School’s Maryland Junior Institute, a summer program designed for students of color who are interested in pursuing a degree in public policy.
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