Economics

Michael 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 four times, most recently in summer of 2005.

Martha Paas (Ph.D. Bryn Mawr) has special interests in questions of early economic growth, industrialization, and the economics of the arts. She has written a book on population change and labor markets in early modern Germany, and has a book forthcoming on the inflation of 1619-23. She has held a Senior Research Fulbright Fellowship in Germany and is the architect of the annual Carleton Seminar in Economics Cambridge, England. She teaches courses in Macroeconomics, European economic history, the History of Economic Thought, and the Economics of the Arts.

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 (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 above. In addition, he has developed a mean game of Scrabble.

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.

Nathan Grawe (Ph. D. University of Chicago) teaches Economics of Inequality, Econometrics, Economics of the Public Sector, and Labor Economics. 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.

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.

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/

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.

Stephen R. Lewis, Jr. (PhD, Stanford) was President of Carleton from 1987 to 2002 and is currently on leave. 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 and 1980-82) and has been a consultant in several other countries. He's published five books and numerous articles on economic development. View his home page.

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.

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), Simba (a yellow lab), and Pixie (a chihuahua), ThunderCat and Tipsy (felines). She and her husband Tom each have three grown children and countless grandchildren!