Teaching and evaluation

What I do

I teach economics, and I create and evaluate problems: I write the problems and answer keys that test whether students can do economics, grade and review the answers, and referee, select, and edit economic work. Below, to help you judge whether I fit your project: my selected work in this field, the methods and tools I would bring to it, my advising and outreach, and my review and teaching. If I do, the Connect page says how to start.

Selected work

Academic journals, chapters, and policy writing

Peer-reviewed articles

  • "Measuring Academic Mindset in Economics Courses," with 25 co-authors. International Review of Economics Education, June 2026.

    Proposes an aggregate measure of academic mindset, covering relevance, belonging, and growth, and examines how students' demographic characteristics predict their mindset when they enter an economics course. Students who do not identify as male, and first-generation college students, start with a lower mindset, and the difference is larger in introductory courses than in upper-level courses.

    Data. 3,212 students in 45 courses taught by 35 instructors at 24 U.S. institutions.

    Read the paper

  • "Designing Effective Assessments in Economics Courses: Guiding Principles," The Journal of Economic Education, 2024.

    For new instructors: what pedagogical theory says about sound assessment design, how it applies to economics courses, and examples of assessments from the economics literature to try.

    Read the paper

Newsletters

  • "The Job Market for Non-Tenure Track Academic Economists," with Chris Roark. CSWEP News, Issue II, 2022.

    Using the AEA's Universal Academic Questionnaire and its Job Openings for Economists postings, we show how the composition of economics departments has changed and how demand for non-tenure-track faculty has grown since the 2008 financial crisis.

    Read the paper

Working papers/work in progress

  • "Seeking Teachers: Changes in US Academic Economics Department Jobs," with Christopher J. Roark.

    Resting

  • "A Guide to the U.S. Academic Economics Job Market for Teaching-Focused Jobs," with Melanie Fox, Ben Harrell, Nakul Kumar, Daniel J. Lee, and Allison Luedtke.

    Resting

Talks and presentations

Assessment design

  • American Economic Association: "Actively Selecting Assessment Techniques: Asking the Why"
  • University of Chicago Center for Teaching and Learning: "Practical Assessment Design: How to Make Assignments Work for You and Your Students"
  • University of Chicago Center for Teaching and Learning: "Formative and Summative Assessment Strategies"
  • University of Chicago Center for Teaching and Learning: "Efficient Strategies for Writing Effective Exams"
  • De La Salle University-Manila: "Authentic Assessments"
  • Panelist, University of Chicago Center for Teaching and Learning: "Assessing and Using Prior Student Knowledge in 9 Weeks"

Measuring and understanding students

  • Discussant, American Economic Association: "Relevance, Belonging, and Growth in Economic Education"; "The Ancillaries of Undergraduate Economics Program: The Extras Can Make All the Difference"

Other economics education talks

  • Southern Economic Association (Presidential Session): "Avalanche! A Method to Facilitate Discourse in Classes of Any Size"
  • Southern Economic Association and the Robert Morris University Teaching Economics Conference: "Seeking Teachers: Changes in US Academic Economics Department Jobs"
  • Panel chair and organizer, AEA Conference on Teaching and Research in Economic Education: "Social Media Broadens Reach: Our Responsibilities in an Open Classroom"
  • Session chair, TeachECONference: "Inspiring Ideas in Economics Education"
  • Discussant, AEA Conference on Teaching and Research in Economic Education: "Teaching Courses in Macroeconomics and Monetary Policy Through Active Learning"
  • University of Chicago Center for Teaching and Learning: Economics Teaching Group, Exploratory Teaching Groups Colloquium
  • Trinity University, Delta Sigma Pi: a faculty research presentation

Reports, projects, and applications

Teaching and evaluating student work

  • Taught 19 courses across four institutions, with classes from 8 to 400 students, ranging from principles to Ph.D. courses.
  • Graded the work of more than 4,400 student enrolments, more than 500 in writing-intensive courses and honors and MA theses.
  • Served as examiner and grader for the University of Chicago's undergraduate economics placement exam.
  • Judged the Oeconomica Metrics Game, and gave feedback on the University of Chicago Fed Challenge team's mock presentations and on MA thesis proposals.
  • Reviewed 259 applications to the University of Chicago's MAPSS economics MA program.
  • Chaired committees for 9 MA theses, served on committees for 8 more and on one public-policy MA thesis, and second-read 12.

Evaluating professional work

  • Refereed work for 16 journals and 2 research funders across economics, finance, accounting, and management: British Journal of Management, Computational Economics, Eastern Economic Journal, Economics Bulletin, Economic Theory, European Accounting Review, European Journal of Finance, Frontiers in Blockchain Research, Global Finance Journal, Information Economics and Policy, International Review of Economics Education, Journal of Economic Insight, Journal of International Economics, Journal of International Money and Finance, Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Sage Open; the Czech Science Foundation and the Swiss National Science Foundation.
  • Served on 7 conference selection committees at 4 academic conferences: the Crypto Asset Lab Conference (three times), Tokenomics (twice), the International Trade and Finance Association Annual Conference, and the AEA/ASSA Annual Meeting (three CSWEP sessions).
  • Reviewed textbooks for their publishers: Cowen and Tabarrok, Modern Principles of Economics; Williamson, Macroeconomics (pre-revision); Sachs and McCord, Principles of Economics and Global Sustainable Development (prospectus).
  • Co-edited a special edition of the Eastern Economic Journal on the economics of cryptoassets.
  • Organized two cryptocurrency sessions for the International Banking, Economics and Finance Association at the Western Economic Association International Annual Conference.
  • Interviewed candidates for economics lecturer positions at the University of Chicago.
  • Reviewed the survey analysis in three Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance reports for correctness and completeness, and reviewed and gave suggestions on the co-authors' measure of academic mindset (Measuring Academic Mindset in Economics Courses).
  • Evaluated the curriculum of "Digital Assets for Regulators" for the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.
  • Served on the University of Chicago economics department's macroeconomics curriculum review.
  • Co-led the Cambridge Digital Money Dashboard: reviewed the text and data work, and helped lead meetings with stakeholders.

Methods and tools

Creating problems

  • Homework and exams: designed all homework and exams for every course I taught, from principles to Ph.D.; in the intermediate theory courses and International Monetary Systems, homework tests analysis rather than recall. Principles set out in: Designing Effective Assessments in Economics Courses.
  • Answer keys: wrote the answer keys for my homework, quizzes, and exams.
  • Parallel versions: wrote back-up versions of the quizzes for every course I taught at the University of Chicago.
  • Problems built on models: problems that apply simplified economic models to real cases, such as a run at FTX or a shift from the bolívar to bitcoin, set in nine courses; the models are listed under Economic analysis.
  • Writing and data assignments: policy-brief prompts, one on a policy of the student's choosing (Economic Policy Analysis); a 15-page research paper built through weekly drafts (International Trade); five data projects, including a trading strategy written as code to run on an exchange (Cryptoasset Markets).
  • Practice problems: topic summaries and practice problems written for the course. Used in: Principles of Macroeconomics; International Monetary Systems.

Designing measures

  • Assessment designed around how students' thinking develops: the Perry and WWK models, five levels of undergraduate critical thinking from silence to constructed knowledge, applied to assessment design in: Designing Effective Assessments in Economics Courses.
  • Choosing how to assess: assessment method and frequency chosen for each course; assessments designed to work in person and online; course assessment and delivery redesigned for COVID-era teaching.
  • Grading schemes: each designed to fit its students, course, and institution, for example a grade taken from whichever of several weighting plans gives the student the highest grade, only the best scores counted, make-up quizzes and tests open to every student, drafts that set a floor for the paper grade, and grade cutoffs that a curve can lower but never raise.

Teaching methods and tools

  • Discussion and peer learning: the Avalanche method and in-class quick-response exercises, in classes of any size; students posted their code and data to a shared folder and learned from each other's work (Cryptoasset Markets).
  • Learning by computing: students solved and simulated models in MATLAB and Dynare (Intermediate Macroeconomics) or in MATLAB or Python (Economic Policy Analysis), and pulled exchange data through APIs in Python (Cryptoasset Markets).
  • Learning from public data: students worked with FRED series and graphs; graphed and regressed World Bank, Gapminder, and College Scorecard data in Excel; and did group problem sets on open data repositories. Used in: Principles of Macroeconomics; International Monetary Systems; Intermediate Macroeconomics; Economic Policy Analysis; Macroeconomics.
  • Disclosed AI use: students could use AI tools if they disclosed the tool and the prompt (Macroeconomics).
  • One curriculum across instructors: created and maintained the common Principles of Macroeconomics curriculum used by every instructor of the course at the University of Minnesota, as many as eight in a semester.
  • Pedagogy and online teaching: Pedagogy Fellow, then Associate Fellow, Chicago Center for Teaching and Learning; graded online assignments in Gradescope and trained colleagues to use it; contributed online-teaching methods and materials to the University of Chicago economics department.

Advising and outreach

Leadership and service

Teaching and learning centers

  • EnCOREage Workshop, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University.
  • Presented on assessment design and exam writing at the University of Chicago Center for Teaching and Learning, the American Economic Association, and De La Salle University-Manila.

University service

  • Served on the University of Chicago's ad hoc committee on exam accommodation for students with disabilities.
  • Built and ran the University of Chicago economics department's hiring of teaching assistants and graders.
  • Took part in a University of Chicago post-address colloquium on the Aims of Education.

Workshops I organized

  • Co-taught the MA Thesis Development Workshop for the macroeconomics and finance specialization, and organized the fall macro MA thesis workshop, at the University of Chicago.
  • Panel chair and organizer, "Social Media Broadens Reach: Our Responsibilities in an Open Classroom," at the AEA Conference on Teaching and Research in Economic Education.

Advising students

  • Thesis supervisor for 31 economics MA students at the University of Chicago, from finding the research question through technical guidance to the final evaluation; first reader on 9 theses and second reader on 20.
  • Advised undergraduate honors theses at the University of Chicago, and undergraduate theses and research papers at Trinity University.
  • Wrote letters of recommendation for University of Chicago students every year I taught there, for 3 to 22 students a year.

Review and teaching

Evaluation and recognition

Teaching evaluations

  • University of Chicago [pdf]
  • Trinity University [pdf]
  • University of Minnesota [pdf]

Recognition

  • Two Walter W. Heller Outstanding Teaching Awards, University of Minnesota.
  • Distinguished Instructor eight times, University of Minnesota.
  • Distinguished Teaching Assistant, University of Minnesota.
  • I was not eligible for teaching awards at Trinity University or the University of Chicago.

Courses taught

Except where marked co-taught, I designed and taught these courses, from determining the curriculum to creating the homework and exam problems, and grading them or overseeing their grading. For more details see my academic website.

Ph.D. (topical)

  • Risk and Benefits of Digitized Money and Assets, Collegio Internazionale Ca' Foscari.

Master's (core)

  • MA Thesis Development Workshop, University of Chicago, macroeconomics and finance specialization, co-taught.

Master's (topical)

  • Cryptoasset Markets, Financial Mathematics, University of Chicago.

    Assessment. Five data projects, most done in groups, including a trading strategy written as code to run on an exchange. Students post their code and data to a shared folder, so each learns from the others' work.

    Syllabus

Undergraduate (core)

  • Principles of Macroeconomics, University of Chicago, Trinity University, and University of Minnesota.

    Assessment. Homework, in-class quick-response exercises, and quizzes at Chicago; homework, midterms, and a final at Trinity. Topic summaries and practice problems written for the course.

  • Principles of Microeconomics, Trinity University.
  • The Elements of Economic Analysis I, University of Chicago.

    Assessment. Homework, in-class quick-response exercises, and quizzes. Homework tests analysis rather than recall.

  • The Elements of Economic Analysis II (Intermediate Microeconomics), University of Chicago.

    Assessment. Homework, in-class quick-response exercises, and quizzes. Homework tests analysis rather than recall.

  • The Elements of Economic Analysis III (Intermediate Macroeconomics), University of Chicago.

    Assessment. Homework, in-class quick-response exercises, and quizzes. Homework tests analysis rather than recall.

  • Intermediate Macroeconomics, University of Minnesota.

Undergraduate (topical)

  • International Monetary Systems, University of Chicago and Trinity University.

    Assessment. Homework that tests analysis rather than recall, in-class quick-response exercises, tests, and policy reports. Each class meeting has its own topic summary and practice problems, written for the course.

  • Economic Policy Analysis, University of Chicago.

    Assessment. Homework and three policy analysis briefs, two from set prompts and one on a fiscal or monetary policy of the student's choosing. All slides, handouts, prompts, and questions are written for the course.

  • International Trade, Trinity University.

    Assessment. Weekly homework, a midterm in two parts (take-home and in class), and a 15-page research paper built through weekly drafts, with an optional presentation. The course grade uses whichever of four weightings of homework, midterm, and paper gives the student the highest grade.

Professional education

  • Macroeconomics, University of Chicago, as a visiting instructor, for participants who already hold an undergraduate degree.

    Assessment. Group in-class exercises and four group problem sets, using data from open repositories. AI tools are allowed when the tool and prompt are disclosed.

Pre-college

  • Pathways in Economics, University of Chicago high school summer program, co-taught, in calculus-based and non-calculus versions; also offered as a survey of Chicago economics.