Department of
Economics

Making sense of messy data sets to help Routt County economics

Joanna Mosley participates in the Economics undergraduate research internship program with faculty mentor Stephan Weiler to add information about small business in Steamboat Springs to an economic dashboard for rural Colorado counties. 

Spring 2022

Making Economics more Feminist: Spotlight on Ph.D. Candidate Sarah Small

Economics Ph.D. candidate Sarah Small was attracted to CSU’s unique coursework in feminist economics and political economy. After six years in the program, Small has thrived in policy-focused research and has enjoyed teaching economics to underrepresented students, making economics more accessible.

Winter 2021

Navigating Border Economies

The border cities of El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico – both big industrial hubs – exist specifically because the border exists, characterized by a tension that fuels economic activity. Professor Anita Pena and PhD student Adam Walke explore the complexities of interconnected economies and the economics of immigration, which is inevitably about people. 

Spring 2021

Together, we investigate and learn

In the Department of Economics, together, we investigate, imagine, lead, learn, and solve. From innovative teaching approaches to increased gender representation, the value of charismatic wildlife to a green economic recovery, students and faculty are exploring issues of inequality and sustainability in a variety of ways.  

Winter 2020

Lead exposure study shows how economics leads to understanding health at another level

Chris Keyes, Ph.D. candidate, has discovered not just a correlation, but a causal relationship, between a region’s level of lead and the degree to which the people who grew up there suffered adverse health and cognitive effects from elevated levels of lead in their blood. 

Winter 2019/Spring 2020

Finding economic connections in the urban/rural divide

Identifying rural solutions to urban needs, and vice versa, has been a big part of Professor Stephan Weiler’s work for decades. With the Regional Economic Development Institute, Weiler and others are examining the many ways to bridge the urban-rural divide. Whether it’s malting barley, charter school supply and demand, or poverty and incarceration, rural and urban communities can learn from and benefit one another and provide opportunities for more people to succeed.

Spring 2019

Artificial Intelligence, the Future of Work, and Inequality

One of the most spectacular facts of the last two centuries of economic history is the exponential growth in GDP per capita in most of the world. This economic progress, unprecedented in human history, would be impossible without major breakthroughs in technology. Many believe we are on the verge of a new technological revolution that will see Artificial Intelligence (AI) automating a majority of tasks that are currently performed by humans. Should we see AI as liberating or as a destructive force?