Sofoklis Goulas

Sofoklis Goulas is an Associate Research Scholar at the Hellenic Studies Program and a Research Affiliate of the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). He was previously a Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution and a Senior Researcher at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Earlier in his career, he held research and consulting roles with the Center for Community Capital at UNC–Chapel Hill, the Bank of Greece, and the World Bank, consistently combining academic rigor with policy relevance.

 

His expertise lies in the economics of education, public economics, program and policy evaluation, and the integration of artificial intelligence into learning environments. He has led numerous impact evaluations of school choice and school improvement policies across the United States, and has advised state education agencies and school districts. He has also testified as an expert witness on education policy before the Idaho Senate and House of Representatives. His research has been published in academic journals and policy reports, received best paper awards, and attracted wide media attention on both sides of the Atlantic, influencing education policy debates. Most recently, his work on declining school enrollment in the US was cited in the 2025 Economic Report of the President.

Sofoklis holds an M.Sc. in Finance and Economics from Warwick Business School in the UK, an MS and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Fulbright fellowship, the UNC Impact Award for outstanding graduate research, and the Emerging Education Policy Scholarship at the American Enterprise Institute are among his varied honors and scholarships.