Skip Navigation

Text Only/ Printer-Friendly

Carleton College

  • Home
  • Academics
  • Campus Life
  • Prospective Students
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Staff
  • Students
  • Families

Faculty and Staff

The Economics Department at Carleton College consists of ten full-time and two visiting faculty members with varying backgrounds who teach and conduct research on a broad range of topics. The curriculum is both theoretical and applied. Introductory courses in macroeconomics and microeconomics are a prerequisite for all upper-level courses. Economics majors are required to complete a core theoretical sequence of advanced courses in microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics as well as a comprehensive exercise consisting of an exam or a senior research project. In addition to the theory courses, applied courses are available on subjects ranging from European Economic History to Managerial Economics to Law and Economics and International Finance.

Carleton College has been home to two very influential economists, John Bates Clark and Thorstein Veblen. In their honor, the Economics Department sponsors the annual Veblen-Clark lecture. Each summer the department also conducts a full-term program based at Cambridge University in England.


CHAIR
Michael Hemesath (mhemesat@carleton.edu)
(507) 222-4105

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
Susan Quay (squay@carleton.edu)
(507) 222-4109

Economics

  • Phone: (507) 222-4109
  • Fax: (507) 222-4044

Faculty

Michael T. Hemesath
Professor of Economics
Chair of Economics
Office: Willis Hall 315
Phone: x4105

Michael HemesathMichael Hemesath (Ph.D. Harvard) teaches international trade, health economics, and the economics of the former Soviet Union. He has been active in incorporating the case method of teaching into several of his classes. He has published research, some completed jointly with a colleague at St. Olaf, comparing attitudes towards markets in the U.S., Russia and China. He is also interested in economics education in the former Soviet Union. Professor Hemesath is deeply committed to off-campus studies programs. He has directed three Associated Colleges of the Midwest programs in Krasnodor, Russia, and has been faculty director for Carleton's Economics Seminar at Cambridge University five times, most recently in summer of 2007.

Scott Bierman
Scott Bierman
Professor of Economics
Visiting Scholar in the Dean of the College Office

Scott Bierman (B.A. Bates College, Ph.D. University of Virginia) teaches microeconomic theory, public finance, industrial organization, and game theory. He has examined the relative merits of alternative subsidized housing in New York City and has co-authored a textbook designed to give undergraduates a taste of game theoretic modeling and how it can be applied to a variety of economic situations. Professor Bierman, in conjunction with Todd A. Proebsting (Carleton Class of 1984), has also published a computer based interactive tutorial (now in its Fourth Edition) for principles of economics students. His current research interests focus on experimental economics, and he has been instrumental in developing Carleton's quantitative reasoning initiative which is aimed at integrating quantitative reasoning throughout the curriculum. Scott has served as Faculty President and Associate Dean and is currently serving as Dean of the College in Laird Hall.


Martha Paas
Martha W. Paas
Wadsworth A. Williams Professor of Economics
Office: Willis Hall 303
Phone: x4103

Martha Paas (Ph.D. Bryn Mawr) is a macroeconomist who teaches courses in economic history, the history of economic thought, and the economics of the arts. She has lectured and written widely on demography and economic change in early modern Europe , and has a new book forthcoming with Yale University Press on the Kipper und Wipper inflation of 1619-23. Martha has held several grants and fellowships, most recently a Senior Research Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Jena. She is the architect of the annual Carleton Seminar in Economics at Cambridge University, England , which she started in 1983.

Stephen Strand
Stephen Strand
Raymond Plank Professor of Incentive Economics
Office: Willis Hall 304
Phone: x4104

Steven Strand (Ph.D. Vanderbilt) came to economics after a stint in the Peace Corps in Turkey and specializes in regulatory economics, a topic on which he has published several articles and done consulting and research. He teaches managerial economics, the economics of regulation, and other applied microeconomics topics. Professor Strand's recent research has centered on pricing models of spatial monopoly and competition. He has co-directed an off campus program in Paris, France with Prof. Dana Strand and has taught a course on the Economics of the European Union. Many of Steve's most interesting thoughts occur to him on the golf course or on a fishing trip.

Mark Kanazawa
Mark T. Kanazawa
Ada M. Harrison Distinguished Teaching Professor of the Social Sciences
Director of Environmental Studies
Office: Goodsell Observatory 106B
Phone: x4106

Mark Kanazawa (Ph.D. Stanford) regularly teaches courses in environmental and natural resources economics, western economic history, economics of sports, and econometrics. His research interests include issues of political economy, regulation, and public policy as applied to natural resources. In particular, he has been researching the political economy of water rights in California. Mark is the career coordinator for the Economics Department. Mark is also a bowler who has his own fancy ball and funny shoes, but he still cannot beat Jenny, see below. In addition, he has developed a mean game of Scrabble.

Jenny Wahl
Jenny B. Wahl
Professor of Economics
Office: Willis Hall 321
Phone: x4007

Jenny Wahl (Ph.D. University of Chicago) has previously held positions at St.Olaf College, George Mason University, and the U.S. Treasury Department. She has published in the areas of American economic history, demography, tax policy, and labor law. Her book on the economics of slavery law was published by Cambridge University Press; her current research includes an evaluation of Andrew Jackson's monetary policy, the effects of the decision in Brown v. Board on the labor market, and an economic interpretation of modern fiction. Jenny is a member of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune's Board of Economists. She teaches courses in labor economics, law and economics, American economic history, price theory, and microeconomic principles. Jenny is a finesse bowler and has been inducted into the Speedway, Indiana, Hall of Fame.

Pavel Kapinos
Pavel S. Kapinos
Assistant Professor of Economics
Office: Willis Hall 305
Phone: x4109

Pavel Kapinos (Ph.D. University of Illinois) teaches classes in international finance, macroeconomics, and financial markets. His primary research interests lie in monetary economics. More specifically, he is interested in the theoretical and empirical aspects of the dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models that emphasize nominal rigidities. He is also an avid sports fan who follows international soccer and domestic football leagues.

Radek Szulga
Radek Szulga
Assistant Professor of Economics
Off Campus: Summer 2009
Office: Willis Hall 308
Phone: x4001

Radek Szulga (Ph.D. University of California, Davis) teaches courses in international finance, growth and development and macroeconomics. His research interest center around the role of labor markets in the process of economic development with emphasis on issues of women’s work, immigration and remittances sent home by migrant workers. He is also interested in Economic History as it relates to the above topics. His non academic interests include reading history books, watching British mysteries and following SEC football.

Lauren Feiler
Lauren E. Feiler
Assistant Professor of Economics
Office: Willis Hall 307
Phone: x4119

Lauren Feiler (Ph.D. California Institute of Technology) teaches classes in behavioral and experimental economics, game theory, and microeconomics. Her current research focuses on the use of justification in economic decision making. This research includes experimental studies on tendencies to seek information that will support one's beliefs and avoid information that could cause monetary or psychological harm. (For example, you might not make eye contact with a homeless man in order to avoid feeling compelled to give him money or feeling guilty about not giving him money.) Lauren's favorite activities include camping, kayaking, and riding roller coasters.

Meherun Ahmed
Meherun Ahmed
Assistant Professor of Economics
Office: Willis Hall 320
Phone: x4395

Meherun Ahmed (Ph.D. University of Washington) teaches Microeconomics, Development Economics, Labor Economics and Economics of Gender. Her research focuses on the microeconomic analysis of household behavior, with emphasis on education, nutrition, poverty and inequality, as well as labor force supply. As an avid fan of Bangladesh cricket team, she follows events in the international cricket arena. She loves to cook, watch old Hindi and Bengali movies, and hike in the summer. She is also involved with a non-profit organization in Bangladesh that works on adult literacy programs and safe drinking water initiative in rural areas of Bangladesh.

Webpage: http://people.carleton.edu/~mahmed/

Aaron Swoboda
Aaron M. Swoboda
Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow in Economics
Office: Goodsell Observatory 203
Phone: x5784

Aaron Swoboda is back at Carleton ('01 Econ) after stints at the University of California - Berkeley (PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics) and the University of Pittsburgh (Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs). He teaches courses in environmental economics, microeconomics, econometrics and cost-benefit analysis. When not teaching or trying to find a free lunch on campus, Aaron can be found in the Goodsell branch office of the economics department along with Mark (right next to the big telescope). His research interests include the spatial analysis of land use policy, homebrewing and fly fishing.

Bob Will photo
Robert E. Will
Raymond Plank Professor of Incentive Economics, Emeritus
Office: Willis Hall 305
Phone: x4109

Robert E. Will (Ph.D. Yale University) became an Economics Department legend during his 36 years (1957-1993) on the Carleton faculty. A Carleton grad himself (Class of 1950), Bob championed the importance of a liberal arts education. Each year the Robert E. Will Economics Prize, created to honor Bob's service, is awarded to the senior economics major or majors who demonstrate excellent academic achievement and breadth of intellectual interests in the best tradition of a liberal arts education. Bob remains a resident of Northfield and is very involved in community activities.

picture of Stephen Lewis
Stephen R. Lewis, Jr.
Professor of Economics, Emeritus and President, Emeritus
Office: Willis Hall 305
Phone: x4109

Stephen R. Lewis, Jr. (PhD, Stanford) was President of Carleton from 1987 to 2002. A development economist interested in fiscal, monetary and trade policy, he lived and worked in Pakistan (1963-65), Kenya (1971-73), and Botswana (1977-78, 1980-82) and has been a consultant in several other countries. He’s published six books and numerous articles on economic development. Since retiring from Carleton, he has served on several corporate and non-profit boards and continues to write and consult. View his home page.

Melissa K. Whitler
Visiting Instructor in Economics
Office: Willis Hall 322
Phone: x7676
Penelope B. Prime
Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics
Clint Pecenka
Visiting Instructor in Economics

Staff

Nathan Grawe
Nathan D. Grawe
Associate Dean of the College
Associate Professor of Economics
Office: Laird Hall 134
Phone: x4301

Nathan Grawe (Ph. D. University of Chicago) teaches Economics of Inequality, Econometrics and Industrial Organization. His research interests focus on the role of family in perpetuating inequality. He has published several articles examining the correlation between parent and child income and is now studying the "family size effect" (why children from large families, on average, earn less than those from small families). Nathan was faculty director of the Cambridge program in Summer 2004. ngrawe@carleton.edu or visit his homepage.

Susan Quay
Susan F. Quay
Administrative Assistant in Economics
Assistant to the Director of the College Writing Program
Office: Willis Hall 305
Phone: x4109

Susan Quay arrived at Carleton College in 1993 and joined the Economics Department as its administrative assistant and ringmaster in 1996. In addition to her responsibilities with faculty and students in economics, Susan also supports The College Writing Program. Clearly blessed with more than her fair share of organizational and communication skills, Susan is also an ambitious do-it-yourselfer on construction projects, an internationally proclaimed interior designer, and the proud mother of McCall (a chocolate lab), Pixie Stix and Jasmine (chihuahua's), and Tipsy (feline). She and her husband Tom each have three grown children and countless grandchildren!