Aaron Phipps

Curriculum Vitae

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Updated February 2026

Fields of Interest

Labor Economics, Personnel Economics, Economics of Education

Academic Appointments

2025-Present Associate Professor of Economics, West Point
2018-2025 Assistant Professor of Economics, West Point

Education

2018 Ph.D. in Economics, University of Virginia
2015 M.A. in Economics, University of Virginia
2010 B.A. in Economics and Statistics with Honors; Minor Mathematics, Philosophy, Brigham Young University

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Path Dependence in the Labor Market: The Long-run Effects of Early Career Occupational Experience

with Jesse Bruhn, Jake Fabian, Matthew Gudgeon, Luke Gallagher, and Adam Isen — Revise and Resubmit, Quarterly Journal of Economics

Entrepreneurship Among Veterans: Comparative Evidence from Recent Surveys

with William Skimmyhorn — International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship

How People Learn: Adult Learning in the Military Context

Forthcoming, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Are Students Time Constrained? Course Load, GPA, and Failure

with Alexander Amaya — Journal of Public Economics, Vol. 225

Enacting the Rubric: Teacher Improvements in Windows of High-stakes Observation

with Emily Wiseman — Education Finance and Policy, Vol. 15(2)

The Changing Occupational Distribution by College Major

with Michael Ransom — Research in Labor Economics, Vol. 45

Working Papers

More than Sheepskin: A Natural Experiment on College and Earnings

with Timothy Justicz and Joseph Price — Under review

Does Free Community College Change Who Enlists in the Military? Qualitative and Quantitative Evidence from Tennessee Promise

with Michael Brown, Celeste Carruthers, Michael Kofoed, and Jenna Kramer — Under review

Can Diversity Improve Equity? Achieving Racial Parity in Leader Assessment of Minority Team Members

with Romaine Campbell — Supported by the Upjohn Institute Early Career Research Grant. Available upon request.

The Cost of Bad Timing: The Effect of Military Exit Timing on Veteran Educational Attainment

with Carl Wojtaszek and Michael Kofoed — Available upon request

Works in Progress

The Effects of Leaders in the Army

with Luke Gallagher, Richard Patterson, and Nolan Pope

Leadership Economics: An Undergraduate Textbook

An undergraduate textbook on public choice, information economics, personnel economics, and a microeconomic model of soft human capital.

Teaching Experience

West Point Leadership and Personnel Economics; Intermediate Macroeconomics; Principles of Economics
UVA Principles of Macroeconomics (TA), Intermediate Microeconomics (TA), Economic History (TA), Economics of Education (TA)
BYU Econometrics I and II (TA)

Presentations

2024-2025 Northeastern Economics of Education (Yale), Southern Economic Association (Baltimore), APPAM (Washington), ASSA (San Francisco).
2023-2024 Southern Economic Association (New Orleans), AEFP (Baltimore), Bozeman Applied Economics Conference, Western Economic Association (Seattle).
2022-2023 Leadership Economics workshop at UT Austin McCombs School of Business (by invitation); ASSA (New Orleans); Mountain West Economic History Conference (Logan); AEFP (Denver); Featured speaker for the New Jersey Air and Army National Guard Leadership Conference (Atlantic City).
2021-2022 Northeast Economics of Education Workshop (Online); Guest Lecturer on Economics of Education (Tulane, Online); SEA (Houston).
2020-2021 APPAM (Online), AEFP (Online), WEAI (Online).
2019-2020 European Association of Labour Economists (EALE) (Stockholm, Sweden); Northeast Economics of Education Workshop (Amherst, MA); AEFP (Online).
2018-2019 SEA (Washington, DC); SOLE (Washington, DC); AEFP (Kansas City, KS); WEAI (San Francisco, CA).
2017-2018 APPAM International (Brussels, Belgium); HCEO Working Group (Chicago, IL); SEA (Tampa, FL); AEFP (Portland, OR).
2016-2017 Economic Research Colloquium (Charlottesville, VA); AEFP (Washington, DC).
2015-2016 AEFP (Denver, CO).

Honors, Fellowships and Awards

2024 Russell Sage Foundation, Co-PI ($166,000)
2024 Faculty Research Fund Grant Awardee, West Point
2023 Upjohn Institute Early Career Research Grant
2023 Department of the Army Civilian Service Achievement Medal
2022 Murdy Teaching Award, West Point
2020 Department of the Army Civilian Service Achievement Medal
2017-2018 Predoctoral Bankard Fellow, University of Virginia
2015-2017 Institute of Education Sciences Predoctoral Fellow
2017 Attendee, 2017 Human Capital and Economic Working Group Summer Program, University of Chicago
2016 Snavely Prize for Outstanding Dissertation Proposal, University of Virginia
2015 Steer Family Endowment Research Grant, University of Virginia
2015 Snavely Prize for Outstanding Summer Paper Award, University of Virginia
2010 University Honors with Thesis, Brigham Young University

Professional Service

2023-2024 National Academy of Science committee member for Adult Learning in the Military Context study.
2022 Co-organized Northeastern Economics of Education conference, hosted at West Point.

Departmental and University Service

2024 Curriculum Design Committee, West Point Economics Department
2023 Consultant to the Army on improving recruitment and retention (received Department of the Army Civilian Service Achievement Medal)
2022 Faculty Editor for the West Point Journal of Politics and Security
2022 “Officer in Charge” for student educational experience in Argentina
2021 Writing Center advisor and economic department representative
2020 Researcher and consultant for congressionally mandated Fort Hood Independent Review Committee (received Department of the Army Civilian Service Achievement Medal)
2020, 2021, 2023 Academic hiring committee
2020-2023 Department Seminar Series Organizer
2018- Hiring, training, and mentoring pre-doctoral research assistants: Jesse Meredith (Boston University), Alec Hoover (UCSD), Andrew Hoover (Notre Dame), Anika Narella (University of Pennsylvania), Kelly Orr, and Eli Levine
2018- Researcher and Fellow of the Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis (OEMA); Academic Research Council

Grant and Project Funding

2024 Faculty Research Fund Grant, West Point ($6,250)
2023 Upjohn Institute Early Career Research Grant ($7,500)
2022 Virginia Veterans Research Grant ($20,000)
2020 DoD Internal Funding for Personnel Incentive RCT ($14 million)

Referee

Review of Economics and Statistics; Journal of Labor Economics; Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization; Education Finance and Policy; Economics of Education Review; Journal of Policy Analysis and Management; Contemporary Economic Policy; Journal of Economics and Business; Journal of Education Human Resources; PLOS ONE

Honors Thesis Committee

* = Chair

2024 Brandon Agran*, Daniel Pinney*
2022 Alexander Amaya*
2021 Greg Brownell*
2020 Chris Weaver, Woo Chul Kim

Languages

English (native) · Spanish (fluent)