Edit2 [Aug. 10th at 1:21pm]: This was loads of fun! Great questions all around! Please feel free to keep sending questions my way and I’ll keep responding as I can. I may be slow to respond for the rest of the day as we’re taking our 2 year old to the beach, but can get back later this evening. Thanks so much!

Edit1: I’ll monitor questions all day and will check back tomorrow, so please feel free to ask any and all questions related to Economics education, public finance, natural disasters, and how I use Roller Coaster Tycoon to teach economic principles.

Link to proof I’m me!

Website

I am a Clinical Assistant Professor at Pace Univ. (NYC) and Director of Economics at Pace Univ. - Pleasantville. I teach our senior capstone research methods course, as well as courses in environmental economics and micro principles.

My research has focused on US state fiscal policies (balanced budget rules, rainy day funds), and more recently I’ve been working on the fiscal and entrepreneurial effects from natural disasters at the state and local level. For example, in a paper currently under review coauthors and myself find that natural disasters seem to on net causally boost entrepreneurship at the US state level over several years following major disasters (> $1 billion in damages).

I’ve spent the bulk of my career so far being a teaching specialist, especially for principles courses, environmental economics, and research methods. In 2020 I published Microeconomics (KH Publishing), a contemporary and concise microeconomics principles textbook. I also maintain a fairly extensive YouTube Channel of lectures, talks, and how-tos on carrying out applied economic research. I also create shorter form videos on TikTok (@econotodd).