Department of
Economics

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?

Winter 2018

The Demand For Water: policy reform and new technologies offer solutions

Renowned CSU economist Edward Barbier has a few ideas about the world’s increasingly serious water crisis. He says we have mismanaged our freshwater supplies by not charging enough for the natural resource and by sticking to an antiquated system of determining water rights. By looking at governance, policy reform, and new technologies we could protect our freshwater ecosystems and secure sufficient water for our world’s growing population.

Spring 2018

The Dynamics of Development: How School Attendance Differs by Gender

A thoughtfully asked question from an Economics 101 student, – “How can we fix global poverty” – set Niroj Bhattarai on a journey that would be surprising and illuminating about what affects school attendance, while also serving as the dissertation research for his Ph.D.

Winter 2017

Resource economist reflects on international career

David Fischer, the first person to receive a Ph.D. in economics from CSU, taught natural resource economics around the world. Among other accomplishments, he developed a framework for studying large-scale environmental accidents.

Spring 2017

Teaching in Vietnam: Lesson on the markets of Hanoi

Dr. Alexandra Bernasek traveled to Hanoi, Vietnam in November of 2016 to teach Econ 202 at Foreign Trade University.