Principal Investigators

Advisory Board

Caren Grown

Caren Grown

Caren Grown, Senior Director for Gender at the World Bank Group, is recognized internationally as an expert on gender and development. Before joining the Bank Group in 2014, she was Economist-in-Residence and Co-Director of the Program on Gender Analysis in Economics at American University. From 2013-2014, she led the UNU-WIDER program on aid effectiveness and
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Diane Elson

Diane Elson

Diane Elson, from the United Kingdom, is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Sociology at Essex University, Visiting Professor at the WiSE Research Centre, Glasgow Caledonian University and Research Associate at the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Rutgers University. She is a member of the UN Committee for Development Policy and is a consultant to
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Emiko Ochiai

Emiko Ochiai

Emiko Ochiai is a Professor of Sociology at Kyoto University. She completed her post-graduate studies in Sociology at the University of Tokyo in 1987. She was a lecturer at the Doshisha Women’s College from 1987 to 1993, a visiting research fellow at the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure from 1993
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Nancy Folbre

Nancy Folbre

Nancy Folbre’s research explores the interface between political economy and feminist theory, with a particular emphasis on the value of unpaid care work and the size of care penalties. In addition to numerous articles published in academic journals, she is the editor of For Love and Money: Care Work in the U.S. (Russell Sage, 2012),
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Young Ock Kim

Young Ock Kim

Dr. Young Ock Kim is a Senior Fellow of Korean Women’s Development Institute (KWDI).  Kim holds a PhD in Economics from Korea University with the dissertation “The Financial Constraint and Investment Behavior of Korean Firms: The Estimation of Tobin’s Q Model”.  Dr. Kim currently serves as a Board Member of the Korean Women Economists Association.
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Researchers

Pierre-Richard Agénor

Pierre-Richard Agénor

Pierre-Richard Agénor is the Hallsworth Professor at the University of Manchester. Prior to joining the University of Manchester, Professor Agénor was Lead Economist and Director of the Macroeconomics and Policy Assessment Skills Program, World Bank. Prior to that, he was an Economist and Senior Economist in the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund. During
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Madina Agénor

Madina Agénor

Madina Agénor, ScD, MPH is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is also the inaugural Gerald R. Gill Assistant Professor of Race, Culture, and Society in the Department of Community Health at Tufts University. As a social epidemiologist and health services researcher, Dr. Agénor
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Levi Altringer

Levi Altringer

Levi Altringer is a PhD Candidate in Economics at Colorado State University in Fort Collins where he also received a master’s degree in Economics. His research interests include stratification economics, the political economy of race and gender, social reproduction, applied microeconomics, and public economics. Recently he has been investigating the role of social reproduction in
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Arnob Alam

Arnob Alam

Arnob Alam is a PhD Candidate in Economics at The American University in Washington DC where he also received a master’s degree in Economics. His research interests include info-metrics and financial markets, complex systems and social network analysis. Recently he has been investigating the role of risk-sharing networks in rural areas. His dissertation work seeks to develop new information-theoretic models of markets.
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Sung Ah Bahk

Sung Ah Bahk

Sung Ah Bahk is an Assistant Professor of Economics at American University. Her research interests are in the areas of labor economics, with a focus on the issues relating to labor market transitions, unemployment, and education. Her current research focuses on the role of information and wealth in the labor market and its welfare consequences. She uses structural modeling and econometric methods to understand the choice mechanism related to career, work, and human capital accumulations and to assess the impact of policies.
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Neha Bairoliya

Neha Bairoliya

Dr. Bairoliya is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Finance and Business Economics at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. Bairoliya received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Minnesota in 2015.  Her research interests lie in analyzing demographic transitions and understanding the macroeconomic and welfare effects of
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Robert Blecker

Robert Blecker

Professor Blecker teaches economics at American University. His research interests include international trade, open economy macroeconomics, global trade imbalances, economic integration in North America, the Mexican economy, the limits to export-led growth strategies in developing countries, and U.S. trade policy. His teaching fields include international economics, macroeconomics, history of economic thought, and political economy.
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Elissa Braunstein

Elissa Braunstein

Elissa Braunstein is Professor of Economics at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, as well Editor for the journal Feminist Economics. Most recently she worked for 2.5 years as a Senior Economist and Head of the unit on Economic Cooperation and Integration Among Developing Countries at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
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Lídia Brun

Lídia Brun

Lídia is from Barcelona and lives in Brussels, where she studied the Master in Quantitive Economics in ECARES and is currently doing her PhD. Her research interests are in the fields of Macroeconomics and Econometrics. Her PhD research is on the links between Inequality and Household Debt, an emerging and hot topic. Despite the consensus
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Binderiya Byambasuren

Binderiya Byambasuren

Binderiya Byambasuren is entering her fourth year of PhD in Economics at American University. Her research focuses on gender distributional effects of rising demand for long-term care in a macroeconomic framework. She is currently working with the Care Work and the Economy Working Group 3 to help develop a CGE model to incorporate eldercare for
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Seung-Eun Cha

Seung-Eun Cha

Seung-Eun Cha received her Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies from Seoul National University. Her doctoral dissertation dealt with examining the impact of the family role, as spouse and parent, on individual health experience, based on gender difference. After receiving her Ph.D. her research interests expanded to midlife development, life transition issues, and retirement
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Jiyeun Chang

Jiyeun Chang

Jiyeun Chang, Ph. D., is a Research Fellow and Vice President at the Korea Labor Institute (KLI). Dr. Chang earned her Ph. D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and joined KLI in 1999. Her research interests include: female and elderly labor market, work-life balance, and income inequality. She is currently working on
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Martín Cicowiez

Martín Cicowiez

Martín Cicowiez is Professor at Universidad Nacional de La Plata in Argentina and Researcher at the University’s Center for Distributional, Labor and Social Studies (CEDLAS). He holds a PhD in Economics from Universidad Nacional de La Plata. He specializes in the application of Computable General Equilibrium models and microsimulations to the assessment of policies and
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Gretchen Donehower

Gretchen Donehower

Gretchen Stockmayer Donehower is a Research Specialist with the Center on the Economics and Demography of Aging at the University of California at Berkeley and an Adjunct Fellow of the East West Center, University of Hawaii. Her current research projects include National Transfer Accounts (ntaccounts.org) which is focused on understanding the age dimension of economic
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Marina Durano

Marina Durano

Marina Durano is a senior program officer at the Open Society Women’s Rights Program. Durano has worked for the last 15 years as a feminist economist specializing in gender-responsive budgeting, international trade policy, official development assistance, and financing for development. Durano has worked closely with Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era and with the
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Carmen Estrades

Carmen Estrades

Carmen Estrades is Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics at Universidad de la República (Uruguay). Her research focuses on the areas of trade policy, agricultural economics and natural resources, and she teaches several courses at the undergraduate and graduate programs. She has been working in research for more than ten years, with a focus
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Ki-Soo Eun

Ki-Soo Eun

Ki-Soo Eun is Professor of Sociology and Demography, and the Director at the Center for Transnational Migration and Social Inclusion (CTMS) at the Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS), Seoul National University. He received a PhD in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. His research interests include: low fertility and aging, family history, family values,
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Marzia Fontana

Marzia Fontana

Marzia Fontana is a feminist economist with many years of research and teaching experience, with a special focus on unpaid work, labour markets, and international trade. She has contributed to the area of gender-aware economy-wide modelling and published a number of articles and book chapters on this topic. Marzia is Research Associate at the Institute
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Eurydice (Evrydiki) Fotopoulou

Eurydice (Evrydiki) Fotopoulou

Eurydice Fotopoulou is a lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London.  Eurydice’s research focuses on gender and macroeconomics, and in particular structular models that investigate income and wealth distribution inequality. She also works on the impact of labour market and fiscal policies. Her research is interdisciplinary, drawing from economics, sociology and gender studies. Recent collaborative research
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Ignacio  Gonzalez Garcia

Ignacio  Gonzalez Garcia

Ignacio  Gonzalez Garcia is an Assistant Professor of Economics at American University (AU). Before joining AU, he was postdoctoral research scholar at Columbia University. His research field is Macroeconomics and his current research focuses on the connections between financial markets and inequality.
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James Heintz

James Heintz

James Heintz has written on a wide range of economic policy issues, including job creation, global labor standards, the distributive consequences of macroeconomic policies, and the intersection between economics and human rights. He has worked on collaborative projects with numerous national and international institutions, including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the
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Catherine Hensly

Catherine Hensly

Catherine Hensly is a PhD candidate in Economics at American University where she also received her MA degree in Economics. Her research focuses on gender and development, particularly with regards to women’s health and political participation. In addition to being a contributing scholar for the Care Work and the Economy Project, she also is an
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Paula Herrera-Idarraga

Paula Herrera-Idarraga

Paula Herrera-Idarraga is an associate Professor at Javeriana University. Her research interests include labor economics, regional economics and gender economics. She obtained her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Barcelona.
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İpek İlkkaracan

İpek İlkkaracan

İpek İlkkaracan is Professor of Economics at Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Faculty of Management, a Research Associate at the Levy Economics Institute
 in New York and an Associate Editor of the Feminist Economics journal.  In 2018-2020, she was based at the University of Rome-Sapienza in Italy on a Visiting Professor grant. Ilkkaracan’s areas of research
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Jiweon Jun

Jiweon Jun

Jiweon Jun, DPhil, is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Transnational Migration and Social Inclusion (CTMS), Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul National University. Her research interests include: understanding the nature of care work; the structure of care work and inequalities among care workers; well-being in late life; work-life balance; low fertility and
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Eunhye Kang

Eunhye Kang

Eunhye Kang is a doctoral student at Seoul National University, majoring in international studies with an emphasis on East Asia. Kang received her master’s degree from the same school. For her master’s thesis she analyzed the childcare and housework time of married women in regards to the composition of their children. She has written and
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Younga Kim

Younga Kim

Younga Kim is an Associate Research Fellow at the Korea Labor Institute (KLI). Before joining the KLI, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Demographic Research, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales, Paris, and was a James Martin visiting
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Kijong Kim

Kijong Kim

Kijong Kim is a research associate in Gender Equality and the Economy program at Levy Economics Institute. His current research interests lie in distributional impact analyses of social and fiscal policies; social care investment; gender-oriented macro modeling; and econometric analysis of household and field surveys. The recent research includes a global projection of economic impact
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Glen Kwende

Glen Kwende

Glen Kwende is a PhD Candidate in the Economics Department at American University, with an interest in Monetary Economics and Labor Macroeconomics, specifically the role of workers’ bargaining power and the transmission of monetary policy through the labor market. His work for the CWE-GAM project focuses on the importance of the role excess capacity and the financial channel play in the investment in the care economy.
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Bongoh Kye

Bongoh Kye

    Bongoh Kye is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Kookmin University in Seoul, Korea. His areas of expertise include demography, social stratification, and quantitative methods. His research focuses on how population dynamics are related with reproduction of social inequality. Previously, he was a Frank H.T. Rhodes postdoctoral fellow of Cornell Population Center at
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Stephan Lefebvre

Stephan Lefebvre

Stephan Lefebvre is expected to earn his Ph.d. from American University in August 2020 with fields in stratification economics, applied microeconomics, and economics of education. He is spending the 2019-2020 academic year completing his dissertation as a pre-doctoral fellow at Ithaca College’s Diversity Scholars Program, where he is teaching one course per semester. Previously, he was an adjunct faculty member
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Joyce Lee

Joyce Lee

Joohyun (Joyce) Lee is the Program Manager at the Center for Transnational Migration and Social Inclusion (CTMS) at Seoul National University Graduate School of International Studies. Lee has conducted quantitative analysis on the time use of women on self-care time in South Korea for her master's thesis, and has been developing an interest in the significance of self-care from a sociological perspective, especially with regards to the opportunities and/or challenges for women; the material and mental burden revolving around care for young adults and the increasing single-person households; and better understanding and reframing care work in connection with building an inclusive society and promoting sustainable development.
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Hans Lofgren

Hans Lofgren

Hans Lofgren is an independent consultant and was formerly a Senior Economist at the World Bank where he developed MAMS (Maquette for Millennium Development Goal Simulations), a model for medium- to long-run country-level policy analysis that has been applied to some 50 countries with a focus on fiscal policy, human development, and the labor market.
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Tom Masterson

Tom Masterson

Thomas Masterson is director of applied micromodeling and a research scholar in the Levy Economics Institute’s Distribution of Income and Wealth program. He has worked extensively on the Levy Institute Measure of Well-being (LIMEW), an alternative, household-based measure that reflects the resources the household can command for facilitating current consumption or acquiring physical or financial
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Emel Memis

Emel Memis

Emel Memiş is a research associate in the Gender Equality and the Economy program at Levy Institute. A professor of economics at Ankara University, she specializes in macroeconomics, gender and economic development, and feminist economics. She is a member of the University’s Women’s Studies Center and an instructor in the Gender Studies program, designing lectures
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Mieke Meurs

Mieke Meurs

Mieke Meurs is Professor of Economics at American University. Her areas of research include household behavior, firm organization, and local government.  She has published extensively on household behavior, and with particular focus on gender issues and rural households. Recent publications include “A data triangulation approach to understanding the behavior of small landholders in Bulgaria,” in
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Ray Miller

Ray Miller

Ray Miller is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Colorado State University (CSU). His research investigates the determinants and consequences of health disparities and social inequality. Research topics include the lasting impact of early health disparities, the welfare implications of health insurance, and the inequality of health and economic well-being among the elderly. Prior to
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Hyuna Moon

Hyuna Moon

Dr. Hyuna Moon received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the Academy of Korean Studies. After receiving her Ph.D in political science, she expanded her interest to the field of feminism and NGO health movement. Based on her knowledge and experiences of Korean society/history and gender studies, she taught graduate courses on Korean studies as
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Özlem Onaran

Özlem Onaran

Özlem Onaran is Professor of Economics at the University of Greenwich since 2012 and the director of the Greenwich Political Economy Research Centre. She is currently directing a project for the ESRC Rebuilding Macroeconomics Network on inequalities in income, wealth and gender and macroeconomic performance. She has directed research projects for the UN International Labour Organisation, UNCTAD,
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Cem Oyvat

Cem Oyvat

Cem Oyvat received his Phd in Economics from University of Massachusetts – Amherst in 2014 with dissertation titled “Essays on the Evolution of Inequality”. His research interests include development economics, macroeconomics, international economics, income distribution and political economy.
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Ito Peng

Ito Peng

Ito Peng, Ph.D. is a Professor of Sociology and Public Policy, and Canada Research Chair in Global Social Policy at the Department of Sociology, and the School of Public Policy and Governance, University of Toronto. She has written extensively on social policies and social and political economy of care in East Asia. She teaches and
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Srinivas Raghav

Srinivas Raghav

Dr. Srinivas Raghav’s research is focused on a number of major themes in the areas of Macroeconomics, Finance and Complex systems, and Political Economy. The broad theme that connects various strands of his research is the issue of dynamic interrelation between economic growth and distribution of income, and his current work focuses on this question
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Hannah Randolph

Hannah Randolph

Hannah Randolph is a third-year PhD student in the Economics Department at American University, with an interest in gender and development, particularly in the context of rural-urban migration. She is currently working with Dr. Floro and Dr. King on a background paper for the GAM project that estimates future care demand based on demographic and
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Stephanie Seguino

Stephanie Seguino

Stephanie Seguino is Professor of Economics at the University of Vermont.  Dr. Seguino’s research explores the impact of globalization on income distribution and well-being, with a particular emphasis on Asian and Caribbean economies. She has been an advisor or consultant to numerous international organizations including the World Bank, United Nations Development Program, the Asian Development
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Bong Sun (Regina) Seo

Bong Sun (Regina) Seo

Bong Sun (Regina) Seo is a PhD student in Economics at American University. She is specializing in applied microeconomics in the fields of labor and development. For this project, she will conduct fieldwork and analysis based in Korea and Washington DC. In particular, she is working on survey development, literature review, and interviewing care centers.
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Yeon Jeong Son

Yeon Jeong Son

Yeon Jeong Son is an Associate Research Fellow at the Korea Labor Institute (KLI). She earned her Ph. D. in economics from the University of Illinois at Chicago and joined the KLI in 2017. Her research interests include economic inequality, female labor market, marriage and divorce, family policies, working hours and work-life balance.
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Jooyeoun Suh

Joo Yeoun Suh

Joo Yeoun Suh is an economist by training. Joo Yeoun is leading the ongoing efforts at AARP to measure, depict, and promote the economic and social contributions made by Americans 50 years and older.
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Daniele Tavani

Daniele Tavani

Daniele Tavani is an Associate Professor of Economics at Colorado State University (CSU). Tavani earned earned his PhD in Economics from The New School for Social Research in 2009, and a Dottorato in Economia Politica (PhD, Political Economy) from Sapienza University of Rome, also in 2009. His research focuses on: (i) the linkages between economic
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Ana Maria Tribin

Ana Maria Tribin

Ana Tribin is a public policy specialist at UNDP-LAC. She hold sa Aaster's and a Ph.D. in economics from Brown University. She previously worked at the Colombian Central Bank as  Senior Research Economist and as the President's High Commissioner for Women’s Equality with the Colombian Government.
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Ramaa Vasudevan

Ramaa Vasudevan

Ramaa Vasudevan is Associate Professor at the Department of Economics, Colorado State University. She completed her Ph.D. in economics from New School University, New York. Her research engages with the political economy of money and finance. This includes work on the functioning of international monetary system, the different ways in which integration with global markets
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Donghoon Yoo

Donghoon Yoo

Donghoon Yoo, Ph. D., is an Associate Research Fellow at the Korea Labor Institute (KLI). Dr. Yoo earned his Ph. D. in economics from University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy and joined the KLI in 2017. He previous worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Economics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland. His research
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Ajit Zacharias

Ajit Zacharias

Ajit Zacharias is a senior scholar and director of the Institute’s Distribution of Income and Wealth program. His research primarily focuses on the theory, measurement, and analysis of economic well-being and deprivation. Along with other Levy scholars, Zacharias has developed alternative measures of economic welfare and deprivation. The Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being (LIMEW)
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Staff

Shirin Arslan

Shirin Arslan

Shirin Arslan serves as the Program Manager for the Care Work and the Economy Project. Previously, she managed the Program on Gender Analysis in Economics (PGAE) at American University’s Department of Economics, where she led the PGAE’s core projects and efforts to strengthen the program’s global partnerships and impact. She also served as a Graduate Fellow at Oxfam America and as a Researcher for the Services Employees International Union (SEIU) and other NGOs. Currently, she serves as a Research Fellow at the DC Policy Center and a member of the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE).
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Jennifer Brown

Jennifer Brown

    Jennifer serves as the Communications Assistant for the Care Work and the Economy Project. She holds a master’s degree in Global Environmental Policy from American University School of International Service in Washington, DC. Her specific research area is food and agriculture regarding industrialized supply chains. She also has conducted research on pesticide usage in Costa Rica, Heir’s Property issues the U.S. Deep South, and fisheries in North Carolina. She holds a bachelor’s in Journalism from University of Hawaii.
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Lucie Prewitt

Lucie Prewitt

Lucie Prewitt serves as a Research and Communications Assistant for the Care Work and the Economy Project. She is currently a master’s student at American University and a part of the Program on Gender Analysis in Economics (PGAE). She also works as a graduate assistant in the Kogod School of Business. Lucie holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance and Economics from Southern Methodist University, and her research focuses on the gendered and racial impacts of austerity policies.
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Praveena Bandara

Praveena Bandara

    Praveena serves as a Research Assistant for the Care Work and the Economy Project. She is currently a Ph.D. student in Economics at American University. Her research focuses on international trade and development macroeconomics. She is also starting an advocacy fellowship this summer with the United Nations Association for the National Capital Area, and hopes to write about the challenges faced by working women of developing countries due to globalization. Praveena holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.
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Catherine Falvey

Catherine Falvey

Catherine Falvey is a rising 3rd-year PhD student in Economics at American University. Her research interests lie in the intersection of gender and labor economics. She began the doctoral program immediately after completing her bachelor’s in Economics and Mathematical Sciences at Eastern Connecticut State University.
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Christian Fignole

Christian Fignole

Christian Fignole is currently a third year PhD student of Economics at American University. He received his master’s degree in economics from Florida Atlantic University in 2019 and a Bachelor's from St John's University in 2017. He is particularly interested in topics related to economic growth and development.
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Carla Anai Herrera

Carla Anai Herrera

Carla Anai Herrera serves as a Research Assistant for the Care Work and Economy Project. She is a master’s student in Economics specializing in gender. Her interests lie in monitoring and evaluation and gender development programs .
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Nghia (Nick) Trong Nguyen

Nghia (Nick) Trong Nguyen

Nick serves as a Research Assistant for the Care Work and the Economy project. He is a rising 2nd year Ph.D. student in Economics at American University. His area of interest is development macroeconomic - growth, inequality, and poverty reduction in particular.
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Aina Krupinski Puig

Aina Krupinski Puig

Aina Krupinski Puig serves as a Research Assistant for the Care Work and the Economy Project. She is an PhD student in Economics at American University specializing in macroeconomics. Her research interests include economic growth, macroeconomic policy, international trade and gender.Before starting her PhD, she was an Associate in Financial Inclusion at Global Communities doing project management and data analytics on micro-finance work in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
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