Dennis Epple is Thomas Lord University Professor of Economics at Carnegie Mellon University. He has a Master of Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School and a PhD in Economics from Princeton University. His research focuses on the political economy of state and local governments, household life cycle location choices, the economics of education, and learning by doing. In the area of education, he is currently studying the effects of entry of private high schools on educational outcomes in India, and he is studying admission, tuition, financial aid, and affirmative action policies of colleges and universities. He served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Education Finance, and has served on peer review panels for the National Science Foundation and the Institute of Education Sciences. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He served as Co-Editor of the American Economic Review and the Journal of Public Economics.

Epple received a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from Purdue University in 1968, an M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1971, an M.S. in Economics in 1973,and a Ph.D. in Economics in 1975, both from Princeton University.