Julian Betts, a Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego, is also a Senior Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC).

Much of his research has focused on the economic analysis of education. He has written extensively on the link between student outcomes and measures of public school spending including class size, teachers' salaries, and teachers' level of education. More recently, he has examined the role that standards and expectations play in student achievement. Examples of his work include a theoretical analysis of the impact of educational standards published in the American Economic Review (1998), the book Getting Choice Right: Ensuring Equity and Efficiency in Education Policy (Brookings Institution Press 2005) co-edited with Tom Loveless, and the co-authored books "Does School Choice Work?" (PPIC 2006), "From Blueprint to Reality: San Diego's Education Reforms" (PPIC 2005), "Determinants of Student Achievement: New Evidence from San Diego" (PPIC 2003) and "Equal Resources, Equal Outcomes? The Distribution of School Resources and Student Achievement in California" (PPIC, 2000). Current research includes studies of school choice, San Diego's controversial Blueprint for Student Success, and California's High School Exit Examination.

His other main areas of research include higher education; immigration; technology, skills, and the labor market; and the economics of unions.

Betts is Principal Investigator on a multi-year study of magnet elementary schools funded by the U.S. Department of Education. This project, which will examine the impact of magnet schools on the achievement of both local and non-local enrollees, is joint with the American Institutes of Research (AIR) and Berkeley Policy Associates (BPA). Betts has served on two National Academy of Sciences panels, including (from 2005-2007) the "Committee on Evaluation of Teacher Certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS)". Betts is also currently serving on the Technical Review Panel for the Longitudinal Study of No Child Left Behind, the Expert Advisory Panel for the Impact Evaluation of the DC Choice Program, and the Technical Working Group for the project Impact on Student Achievement of Teacher Professional Development Designed to Enhance Teacher Content Knowledge and Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Math. He also sits on the national advisory committees for the National Charter School Research Center at the University of Washington, and the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University. In 2005 he served on an Institute of Education Sciences panel that adjudicated the National Education Research and Development Center grants competition, and he has also served as a referee for the National Center for Education Statistics. In 2001-2003 Betts served on the National Working Commission on Choice in K-12 Education, which evaluated the prospects for various versions of school choice in America. He is a member of the editorial board of Education Finance and Policy, published by MIT Press.

Betts is active in several professional associations including the American Economic Association, the Society of Labor Economists and the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM). Betts served on APPAM's National Nominating Committee to select a new president and officers in 1999 and 2000.

At UCSD, Betts also serves on the Board of Directors of the Preuss School at UCSD, a charter school on the UCSD campus that admits disadvantaged students from the local area. He was a member of the UCSD Admissions Committee from 1999 to 2003, serving as both Chair and Vice Chair in various years. In 2001 he served on the University's Gender Equity Taskforce. Within the Department of Economics Betts has served as Computing Director and is currently Vice Chair, Graduate Studies for the Department.

Betts obtained a Bachelor's degree in chemistry from McGill University, the M.Phil. in economics from Oxford University, Oxford, England, and a Ph.D. in economics from Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.