Faculty Profile for Dr. Li Feng

profile photo for Dr. Li Feng
Dr. Li Feng
Professor — Finance & Economics
MCOY 551
phone: (512) 245-8462
Scholarly/Creative Work
Awards
Grants
Service

Biography Section

Biography and Education

 Li Feng is a Professor of Economics in the Department of Finance and Economics at Texas State University. She is also currently a faculty research fellow with the Translational Health Research Center. Previously, she served as a faculty research fellow with the LBJ Institute for STEM Education and Research. During 2016-2017, she served as a Visiting Scholar in the Center for Education Policy Analysis at Stanford University and a Visiting Fellow in the Brown Center on Education Policy Program at the Brookings Institution. She also worked on several different research projects as an adjunct economist with the RAND Corporation and an affiliated researcher with the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research.

Li is currently serving as a PI/PD on a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional collaborative Noyce grant funded by the National Science Foundation. She also serves as co-PI and data analysis co-lead on a $2.5 million NSF-IUSE-HSI project. She has served as Co-PIs on two different research grants awarded by the Institute of Education Sciences.

Her research interests include the economics of education, labor economics, and health economics. Specifically, her work examines education policy issues related to teachers such as the relationship between teacher quality (value-added) and student outcomes, the nexus of school accountability and teacher labor market, the connection between classroom characteristics and teacher mobility, and the role of Collective Bargaining Agreements in the distribution of teachers across schools. She has published in both economics and education journals such as the Journal of Urban Economics (2), Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Education Finance and Policy (2), Economics of Education Review (2), American Journal of Health Behavior (2), the Atlantic Economic Journal (2), Education Economics, Educational Policy, Journal of the American Pharmacist Association, and Southern Economic Journal. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Institute of Education Sciences, the American Educational Research Association, and the National Academy of Sciences. She received her B.A. in International Economic Cooperation from Xi’an Foreign Language University in China, and her Ph.D. in Economics and Education Specialist in Education (Ed.S.) from Florida State University.

Research Interests

 Education policy, the economics of education, labor economics, and health economics; teacher labor markets; STEM teachers; STEM workforce development; economic mobility

Selected Scholarly/Creative Work

  • Ye, X., Zhai, M., Feng, L., Xie, A., Wang, W., & Wu, H. (2022). Still want to be a doctor? Medical student dropout in the era of COVID-19. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2021.12.034
  • Feng, L. (2020). Chapter 30 - Compensating differentials in teacher labor markets. In S. Bradley & C. Green (Eds.), The Economics of Education (Second Edition) (pp. 415–430). Academic Press. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-815391-8.00030-6
  • Feng, L., Figlio, D., & Sass, T. (2018). School accountability and teacher mobility. Journal of Urban Economics, 103, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2017.11.001
  • Feng, L., & Sass, T. R. (2017). The Impact of Incentives to Recruit and Retain Teachers in “Hard-to-Staff” Subjects. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 37(1), 112–135. https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.22037
  • Feng, L., & Sass, T. R. (2017). Teacher Quality and Teacher Mobility. Education Finance and Policy, 12(3), 396–418. https://doi.org/10.1162/EDFP_a_00214

Selected Awards

  • Award / Honor Recipient: Department of Finance and Economics Teaching Award, Department of Finance and Economics. May 3, 2022
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Alpha Chi Favorite Professor 2021, Alpha Chi Honor Society. November 12, 2021
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Presidential Distinction Award in Research, Texas State University. September 1, 2021
  • Award / Honor Recipient: 2020 Teaching Award of Honor, Texas State University Alumni Association. September 1, 2020
  • Award / Honor Recipient: College Achievement Award in Service, Texas State University. August 20, 2020

Selected Grants

  • Ashford-Hanserd, Shetay Nicole (Principal), Feng, Li (Supporting). CAREER: Effects of community cultural wealth on Black and Hispanic women’s persistence in the P-20 computing workforce pipeline in Texas, National Science Foundation, Federal, $920013. (Submitted: August 11, 2020, Funded: February 1, 2021 - January 31, 2026). Grant.
  • Feng, Li (Principal), Close, Hunter Garth (Co-Principal). Collaborative Research: Retention, Persistence, Effectiveness of STEM Teachers in High-need School Districts--An Investigation of the NSF Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship, National Science Foundation, Federal, $1160761. (Submitted: August 28, 2019, Funded: September 1, 2020 - August 31, 2024). Grant.
  • Feng, Li (Supporting), Chen, Xiao (Principal), Ekin, Tahir (Supporting), Musal, Rasim (Supporting). Enabling and Improving Data-Driven Research at Texas State University, National Science Foundation, Federal, $499896.00. (Funded: October 1, 2014 - September 30, 2017). Grant.
  • Feng, Li (Co-Principal), Sass, Tim (Principal). The Impact of Incentives to Recruit and Retain Teachers in “Hard-to-Staff”Subjects: An Analysis of the Florida Critical Teacher Shortage Program, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, Federal, $495575. (Submitted: September 16, 2010, Funded: August 15, 2011 - December 30, 2014). Grant.
  • Feng, Li (Co-Principal), Sass, Tim R. (Principal). The Effects of Teacher Preparation and Professional Development on Special Education Teacher Quality, The U.S. Department of Education, Institute for Education Sciences, Federal, $640044. (Funded: August 1, 2007 - July 31, 2010). Grant.

Selected Service Activities

Editor
Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press
July 1, 2023-Present
Officer
Association for Education Finance and Policy Board of Directors
2021-2024
Alternate member
College Review Group
2022-Present
Faculty Mentor
the Inclusive, Peer, Onsite, Distance Mentoring Program (IPODs) co-sponsored by the American Economic Association and Women's Institute for Science, Equity, and Race
September 14, 2022-Present
Member
Hispanic Community Council
September 1, 2022-Present