Research

Our department has diverse research strengths, spanning many fields, and we are proud of our collaborative and adaptive research culture. Research faculty apply a mix of methods to their work, including empirical, theoretical, and experimental methods.    

Our faculty include thought-leaders in integrating bounded rationality into dynamic macroeconomic models, applied macroeconomists working at the frontier of business cycle research, and economic theorists making advances in game theory, public economics, and culture and demography.    

Empirical researchers in the department include many specialists in advanced data-science and causal-inference techniques. Their influential research covers multiple fields such as labor, education, development, the environment, and social programs. The department also has long-standing research strength in international trade.


Fields of Study

Behavioral and Experimental Economics    
Dynamic Macroeconomics    
Economic Demography    
Economic Development and Cultural Change    
Education and Labor Economics    
Environmental Economics and Data Science

Game Theory    
Health and Crime Economics    
Industrial Organization    
International Trade    
Applied Microeconomics


Kathleen Mullen on campus

“A longstanding focus of my research examines the effects of health on employment, particularly as they relate to social insurance programs such as disability insurance and Social Security. A more recent strand of research focuses on the role of job demands and working conditions in determining health status and labor force participation. A common thread throughout my work is the application of novel econometric and data collection methods to questions of causal inference, combining insights gained from structural modeling, quasi-experimental, and experimental approaches. In my recent paper on working conditions in the US, my coauthors and I find that accounting for differences in preferences for working conditions often worsens wage differentials and intensifies measures of wage inequality.”

-Kathleen Mullen, Associate Professor, Nancy and David Petrone Chair of Economics


Mark Colas in front of a tree

“I employ mostly model-based methods to conduct research on labor and public economics. In a recent project, my coauthor and I study the optimal design of subsidies for rooftop solar panels with a focus on how subsidies should vary across geographic locations. We find that the current set of subsidies leads to a severe misallocation of solar panels across space. We then quantify the environmental gains of moving to the optimal system of subsidies.”

-Mark Colas, Assistant Professor of Economics



News

ECONOMICS - Researchers at the University of Oregon are collaborating with economists from Reed College and the private sector to develop a report that shows Oregonians the cost of climate change to households and government agencies. The team has been writing reports that examine the costs increased wildfires could have on households, the looming threat of flooding in Oregon and policy recommendations for how the state could adapt to climate change.
ECONOMICS - How much do Americans value clean water versus affordable meat? These are the types of tradeoffs Emmett Reynier had to weigh while participating in a research fellowship with the US Environmental Protection Agency. Reynier graduated with a PhD in economics in winter 2025 and is off to a postdoc job at Stanford University and then will be a faculty member at University of Georgia.
ECONOMICS, SPANISH - Adrianna Vaca-Navarro has spent her life fighting against a system that was built against people like her. Now, she is a law student working to help others in need. Vaca-Navarro graduated in 2021. Now, she's a law student at the University of California, Berkeley. She is working to leverage her identity to help communities in need, aiming to fill the gaps within the legal system that she is studying.