Research & Engagement
Research & Engagement
The department partners with a variety of organizations that support our community’s research interests and goals. These organizations offer a variety of services that help take our research out of the academy and into the world.
Students can engage in research through undergraduate research internships, graduate research assistantships, mentorship, and other collaborations with award-winning faculty and community partners.
Engaged Research
The economics department collaborates across disciplines to investigate issues of poverty, inequality, to contribute to a better world. Our economics scholars are pluralists who produce a wide range of economic research drawing on neoclassical, Keynesian, institutional, Marxian, and feminist traditions. We serve as an accessible, expert resource on a wide range of economic issues for policymakers and stakeholders across Colorado, the nation, and global institutions.
REDI
The Regional Economic Development Institute (REDI @ CSU) is an engaged research enterprise that aims to understand, analyze, and inform economic development strategies particularly in struggling regions in both rural and urban areas, especially in Colorado. The dual focus on rural and urban areas.
PAC @ REDI
The Poverty Action Center (PAC @ REDI) uses interdisciplinary mixed-methods approaches to help guide poverty action locally and globally. PAC@REDI researchers are using original survey design and econometric data analysis to answer questions at intersections surrounding poverty, inequality, education, and microfinance while paying particular attention to gender and using tools from development economics.
CSAL
The Center for the Study of Academic Labor (CSAL) is an interdisciplinary research center that supports scholarship, commentary, artistry and activism on contingent academic labor and the future of higher education.
USDA National Wildlife Research Center Parnership
The Department of Economics has a longstanding relationship with the USDA National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC). NWRC is the Federal institution devoted to resolving problems caused by the interaction of wild animals and society. The Center applies scientific expertise to develop practical methods to resolve these problems and maintain the quality of the environments shared with wildlife.
NWRC is headquartered on the Foothills Research Campus of Colorado State University. The center has provided over the years unique applied research opportunities to outstanding PhD students and alumni of our program.
Dr. Stephanie Shwiff
Dr. Stephanie Shwiff is a Supervisory Research Economist and Project Leader at the USDA’s National Wildlife Research Center and Affiliate Faculty at the University of Colorado – Boulder and Colorado State University. At the National Wildlife Research Center, Dr. Shwiff leads the research project entitled, Economics, Operations Research, and Social Dimensions of Wildlife Management. Her research is aimed at better understanding the economic impact of wildlife diseases and damage, and developing, assessing, and improving wildlife management techniques.
Dr. Levi Altringer
Levi Altringer received his PhD in Economics from Colorado State University in 2022. While a graduate student in the Department of Economics at CSU, Levi worked as a Research Associate under a cooperative agreement with the Economics Project at the USDA’s National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC). He now works as an Economist at the NWRC where he conducts economic research to inform human-wildlife conflict management decisions. Levi has a particular interest in causal inference, program evaluation, and cost-benefit analysis and has worked on a variety of topics including aircraft-wildlife collisions, large carnivore reintroduction and predator-livestock conflict, and invasive wild pig damage to agriculture.
Dr. Sophie C. McKee
Dr. Sophie C. McKee is a research economist at NWRC's Economic Research of Human Wildlife Conflicts project. Her main research interests and publications involve the estimation of the economic impacts of wild pig damage and wildlife transmitted diseases, and the valuation of wildlife damage management actions on agriculture and natural resources. She received her PhD Economics from Colorado State University, and her MS in computer science from Supelec in France.
Matt Harman
Matt Harman is a 4th year Economics Ph.D. student and a Research Associate with the National Wildlife Research Center. Matt’s research is primarily for the Airport Wildlife Hazards Program, where he estimates the economic costs associated with wildlife-aircraft collisions and conducts analysis to measure the underlying risk of wildlife strikes. Currently, Matt is developing a novel relative hazard score using NEXRAD radar data and species-specific citizen science data to assess spatio-temporal differences in wildlife strike risk and realized economic risks for airports across the United States.
Luke Maddock
Luke Maddock is currently a 4th year PhD student in the department of Economics at Colorado State University, as well as a Research Associate for the National Wildlife Research Center with research interests in causal inference, machine learning, and environmental management. Luke works on projects funded by the National Feral Swine Program related to the monetary valuation of ecosystems and damage done to natural areas by invasive species.rch is aimed at better understanding the economic impact of wildlife diseases and damage, and developing, assessing, and improving wildlife management techniques.
Feminist Economics
Feminist Economics, edited by Department Chair Elissa Braunstein, is a peer-reviewed journal that provides an open forum for dialogue and debate about feminist economic perspectives. The goal of Feminist Economics is not just to develop more illuminating theories, but to improve the conditions of living for all children, women, and men. By opening new areas of economic inquiry, welcoming diverse voices, and encouraging critical exchanges, the journal enriches economic discourse.
Research News
Accolades
Recent Publications
Estimating the Economic Impacts of Improved Wind Speed Forecasts
Hwayoung, J., Hartman, B., Cutler, H., Hill, R., Hu, Y., Lu, T., Shields, M., and Turner, D.D. (2022). Estimating the economic impacts of improved wind speed forecasts in the United States electricity sector. Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy.
Vasudevan: Women’s Self-Employment as a Developmental Strategy
Vasudevan, R. and Raghavendra, S. (2022). Women’s self-employment as a developmental strategy: the dual constraints of care work and aggregate demand. Feminist Economics.
Braunstein: Gender and the Future of Industrialization
Braunstein, E. (2021). Gender and the future of industrialization in a post-pandemic world. United Nations Industrial Development Organization.
Miller: The Effect of Private Schools on Socioemotional Development
Miller, R. (2022). The effect of private schools on measures of socioemotional development in adolescence: evidence from India. Journal of Human Capital.
Tavani: Aggregate Demand Externalities, Income Distribution, and Wealth Inequality
Petach, L. and Tavani, D. (2022). Aggregate demand externalities, income distribution, and wealth inequality. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics.
Vasudevan: Financial Liberalization and the Indian Corporate Sector
Ganguly, A. and Vasudevan, R. (2022). Financial liberalization and the Indian non-financial, corporate sector. Competition and Change.
Kırşanlı: Pakistan’s Political and Economic Crisis
Mohammed, J., Efendic, H. & Kırşanlı, F. (2022). Pakistan’s political and economic crisis. The Ayaan Institute.
Sedai: Are Autocracies Bad for the Environment?
Sinha, A., Sedai, A.K., Kumar, A. & Nepal, R. (2022). Are autocracies bad for the environment? Global evidence from two centuries of data. The Energy Journal.
Miller: Opportunity Costs of Unpaid Caregiving
Miller, R. and Sedai, A.K. (2022). Opportunity costs of unpaid caregiving: evidence from panel time diaries. The Journal of the Economics of Ageing.
Barbier: Policy Implications of the Dasgupta Review
Barbier, E. (2022). The policy implications of the Dasgupta Review: Land use change and biodiversity. Environmental and Resource Economics.
2021-2022 Seminar Series
The Department of Economics' Seminar Series brings in cutting-edge economics researchers from around the globe. View recordings of these presentations.