Thomas Joseph Kane (born September 5, 1961) is an American education economist who currently holds the position of Walter H. Gale Professor of Education and Economics at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He has performed research on education policy, labour economics and econometrics. During Bill Clinton's first term as U.S. President, Kane served on the Council of Economic Advisers. Biography Thomas Kane earned a B.A. in economics from the University of Notre Dame in 1983, followed by an M.A. in economics from the University of Michigan in 1986, a M.P.P. and Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1988 and 1991, the latter with a thesis on the determinants of Afro-Americans' entry to college during the 1970s and 1980s. After his graduation, Kane became an assistant professor of public policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where he was promoted to associate professor in 1997. While at Harvard, Kane also began working as a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, with which he still maintains an affiliation, held appointment as visiting fellow at Brookings Institution and as national fellow at the Hoover Institution, and worked as senior economist for labour, education and welfare on the Council of Economic Advisers under Bill Clinton (1995–96). In 2001, Kane became the Professor of Policy Studies and Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles, though he returned to an appointment as Professor of Education and Economics at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and as faculty director of the Harvard Center for Education Policy Research in 2005, where he has worked ever since. From 2008 to 2012, Kane was the deputy director of the U.S. education branch of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2013, the Harvard Graduate School of Education honoured him with the position of Walter H. Gale Professor of Education. Research Thomas Kane has conducted extensive research on education in the United States, ranging from K-12 education to higher education and covering topics such as the effectiveness of charter schools, teacher education and certification, education policy, affirmative action, and education finance. Throughout much of his research, Kane has cooperated with Douglas Staiger (Dartmouth College). Research on college education and the impact of family background Since his Ph.D., Kane has researched the determinants of enrollment into college in the U.S. and the impact of family background on it. Examining Afro-Americans' college enrollment rate in the U.S. during the