Katharine Sadowski, PhD

Stanford University, Graduate School of Education

About Me

I am an Assistant Professor at Stanford University in the Graduate School of Education. I am primarily interested in the economics of early childhood. I employ quasi-experimental methods to study the effects of local, state, and federal policies on the early childcare system.

I am currently spending the bulk of my time on two projects. The first is a national childcare provider dataset for which I am actively collecting historic and real-time childcare data (see more here). The second is an approved restricted-access Census project examining the effects of minimum wage increases and pre-K expansions on childcare firms and workers. These projects were sponsored in part by the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy and the 2024 W.E. Upjohn Institute/RSF Dissertation Grant Program.

During my time as a PhD student, I began working as an economist with the Burning Glass Institute where I examined labor market outcomes and the return on investment for higher education through partnerships with the University of North Carolina system and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

I would be happy to discuss my work, applying to graduate school, the trade-off between MA and PhD programs, or my time working at BGI or studying at Cornell. Feel free to get in touch by email ksadow@stanford.edu.