Bates Econ

Welcome to the Bates Economics website, where you can find information on the department curriculum, faculty, events, and more.

News

September 2021

Economics faulty of 2021-2022

Professor He:

  “I am studying how trade and immigration affect COVID-related xenophobia; whether Amazon raises its prices after its competing retailers disappear; what limits coordination within organizations; and how students in different classrooms can affect each others’ academic performances.”

Professor Kurzfeld:

  “I examine the principles of rationality that help us understand criminal behavior, social responsibility, and ideas of justice.”

Professor Lewis:

  “I am an environmental economist. I am a microeconomist who specializes in questions related to natural resources and pollution control.

  I study how incentives motivate behavior (think carbon taxes, gas taxes, bottle deposits).

  I also work to make sure environmental goods and services have a “seat at the table” by thinking about their value in economic terms. What is the value of the Grand Canyon? What is the value of a brown bear?”

Professor Murray:

  “I’m interested in the plight of the least well-off and what economic theory and data can tell us about improving their lot.”

Professor Nguyen:

  “I study the impact of land policies in developing countries on farmers’ economic decisions, such as their choices regarding technology adoption and migration.”

Professor Riera-Crichton:

  “As a macroeconomist, I typically deal with the structure, performance, behavior, and decision-making of the whole, or aggregate, economy.

  While two main areas of macroeconomic research are long-term economic growth and shorter-term business cycles. I typically focus on the latter with an emphasis on open-economy and emerging markets. My interests range from understanding the effects of fiscal (taxation and public expenditure) and monetary policy on the performance of developing countries’ economies to understanding the drivers of the movement of capital across nations. I’m also interested in the determinants and effects of changes in international prices, especially the prices of international currencies (exchange rates) and the prices of internationally traded commodities.”

Professor Rakitan:

  “I am fascinated by energy and its relationship to the environment, agriculture, and natural resources consumption.  I try to characterize the tradeoffs that energy requires and assess the overall costs and benefits.”

Professor Shea:

  “As a macroeconomist, I am interested in what determines a country’s short and long-term economic performance. Why are there recessions? Why are some countries so much wealthier than others? I am especially interested in how incomplete or inaccurate information can cause households and firms to make decisions that impact the overall economy.”

Professor Subramanian:

  “I am interested in how women interact with the economy in low- and middle-income countries, particularly with whether, how, and where they work.”

May 2021

WE@Bates Leadership Award

Congratulations to Georgina Scoville and Maddie Sirois, winners of the inaugural (2021) Women in Economics @ Bates Leadership Award.

Congrats Econ Class of 2021!

April 2019

The 2019 Maine Economics Conference was held at Bates College

Charlie Kolstad ’69, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Economic Policy Research & Precourt Institute for Energy, and Professor of Economics at Stanford University, was the keynote speaker for this event. He talked on “Estimating the Economic Impacts of Climate Change Using Weather Observations.”  Click here for the conference program.

March 2019

Congratulations to Lucy Faust on her Fulbright Award!

December 2018

Ngan Dinh ’02 with majors in economics and Asian studies,  who graduated magna cum laude,  was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and won the Ralph J. Chances Prize as the outstanding economics major while here at Bates is now  a key figure in the creation of Fulbright University Vietnam, the first university to bring the liberal arts experience to Vietnamese students.

For more information:  ‘JUST LIKE BATES’: NGAN DINH ’02 HELPS BUILD VIETNAM’S FIRST LIBERAL ARTS UNIVERSITY .

November 2018

Lynne Lewis, Elmer W. Campbell Professor of Economics, has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AERE). AERE currently has more than 1,000 members from over thirty countries – academic insitutions, the public sector and private industry. AERE also host the top two journals in the field. More information can be found at HERE.