About Me:

I am an adjunct professor and economist researching the microeconomics of poverty, economic development, and rural agriculture. I received my PhD in economics from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva, where I worked under supervisors Jean-Louis Arcand and Nicolas Berman. I have experience working with household survey data at the International Food Policy Research Institute (DC), the IMF (DC), and the World Bank (Geneva, DC, Rome). I specialize in working with large datasets, and geospatial data analysis techniques using GIS software.

My PhD Supervisors:

Professor Nicolas Berman (IDEAS/REPEC page)

Professor Jean-Louis Arcand (IDEAS/REPEC page)

From 2004-2011 I was a professional commentator for video game competitions, or eSports, commentating tournaments of Counter-Strike 1.6 and Warcraft 3. Starting at age 18, I travelled around the United States, and to Italy, Germany, and South Korea, to participate in broadcast of gaming tournaments.  More information can be found on the gaming/esports page.

Research Interests:

My principal areas of research are development economics, agricultural development, gender economics, quantitative policy (impact) evaluation, and geospatial data.

Teaching (Instructor):

UG - Intro Econometrics - AU (CAS) Spring  2023 (avg grade=93)

UG - Intro Econometrics -  AU (CAS) Spring 2024  (avg grade=93)

UG - Intro to Microeconomics - AU (CAS) Spring 2021, Fall & Spring 2022, Fall 2023

UG - Economic Development - AU (CAS) Fall & Spring 2021 , (SIS) Summer 2022

Student Evaluations:

"He truly is one of, if not the best professor I have ever had at American University. He goes out of his way to have the class use real world examples of data rather than just having "Sally has 4 apples and Dave has 15 oranges" style problems... He is everything a college professor should be and then some."

"Professor Dickinson is extremely passionate in his teaching... As a student who’s first language is not English, his class was the only class that was understandable because he took his time to give details and real life explanation as well as links to articles to understand better. Out of all the classes I have taken his was the best."

"He is very supportive of women speaking up in class and encourages them to lead discussions about gender, which was markedly different from other professors and made me more comfortable speaking on the subject because he genuinely wanted to know what our experiences and perceptions were. "

"Professor Dickinson was very engaging, kind, respectful and clearly cares lots for the class and his students. He has been the most accessible professor I've had at American University and wants his students to succeed, and he's willing to go the extra mile to help a sttudent. He made the econometrics course applicable to daily life, and emphasisze the importance of the quantitative skills we were learning."