Research

My primary research interests are in the areas of economic education and environmental economics.

• Economic Education: My main interests lie in (1) the effect(s) of active learning pedagogies on student learning – with specific interest in experiments and cooperative learning, and (2) diversity in the discipline with research on females and underrepresented minorities in economics.

• Environmental Economics: I am interested in (1) the effect of environmental regulatory policies on environmental outcomes, and (2) the effect of macroeconomic conditions on willingness to pay for environmental quality.

I have also studied a variety of issues in the area of business ethics.

 The following is a list of some of my papers and projects organized by area.

Economic Education

• “Comparing Student Achievement Across Experimental and Lecture-Oriented Sections of a Principles of Microeconomics Course” with Beck Taylor, Southern Economic Journal (download paper)

• “Interactions Between Personality Type and the Experimental Methodology in Determining Student Achievement in Principles of Microeconomics” with Beck Taylor, Journal of Economic Education (download paper)

• “Do Classroom Experiments Affect the Number of Economics Enrollments and Majors?” with Beck Taylor, International Review of Economics Education (download paper)

• “Homework: To Grade or Not to Grade?  The Effect of Graded Online Homework on Student Achievement” with Kimberly Mencken, Perspectives on Economic Education Research (download paper)

• “Online Faculty Instruction to Improve Interactive Teaching of Economics” with Mark Maier, invited chapter in Teaching Innovations in Economics: Strategies and Applications for Interactive Instruction edited by Salemi and Walstad (download paper)

• “Classroom Experiments” with Denise Hazlett, invited chapter in the International Handbook of Economic Education edited by Hoyt and McGoldrick (download paper)

• “In-Class vs. Online Experiments: Is there a Difference?” with Linda English, Journal of Economic Education (download paper)

• “Women and the Choice to Study Economics” with KimMarie McGoldrick and Kevin Mumford, Journal of Economic Education (download paper)

• "Anyone? Anyone? A Guide to Submissions on Classroom Experiments", Journal of Economic Education (download paper)

• “Evaluating the Cooperative Component in Cooperative Learning: A Quasi-Experimental Study” with KimMarie McGoldrick and Linda English, Journal of Economic Education (download paper)

• “Cooperative Learning and Personality Type” with Linda English and KimMarie McGoldrick, International Review of Economics Education (download paper)

• “Classroom Experiments: Is more more?” with Linda English, American Economic Review Papers & Proceedings (download paper)

• “Classroom Experiments: Teaching Specific Topics or Promoting the Economic Way of Thinking?” with Linda English, Journal of Economic Education (download paper)

• “The High Costs of Large Enrollment Classes: Can Cooperative Learning Help?” with KimMarie McGoldrick and Linda English, Eastern Economic Journal (download paper)

• “The Gender Gap in Economics Degrees: An Investigation of the Role Model and Quantitative Requirements Hypotheses” with KimMarie McGoldrick and John Siegfried, Southern Economic Journal (download paper)

• “Student Self-reporting Bias Revisited” with Chris Bollinger, Linda English and Gail Hoyt, American Economic Review Papers & Proceedings (download paper)

• “Switching Majors: Into and Out of Economics” with KimMarie McGoldrick, Journal of Economic Education (download paper)

• “An Investigation of Unsuccessful Performance and Subsequent Retake Behavior in Principles of Economics” with KimMarie McGoldrick, Southern Economic Journal (download paper)

• “Teaching with experiments in the introductory microeconomics course” in Teaching Microeconomics Principles Courses, edited by Mark Maier and Phil Ruder (pdf available on request)

• “Online Platforms for Classroom Experiments: A Primer for New Adoptees” with Alicia Atwood, Melissa Knox, and Mahjuja Taznin, Journal of Economic Education (download paper)

• “Cooperative learning in economics: Decomposing a pre-post test outcome to measure the effect of cooperative learning” with KimMarie McGoldrick and Jamie Wagner, International Review of Economics Education (download paper)

• “The Study of Economics at HBCUs and PWIs” with KimMarie McGoldrick and Scott Simkins, Journal of Economic Education (download paper)

• "International Comparisons of Teaching Track Positions in Economics" with Fabio Arico, Alvin Birdi, Avi J. Cohen, Caroline Elliott, Gail Hoyt, Cloda Jenkins, Ashley Lait, Jennifer Murdock, and Christian Spielmann, American Economic Association Papers & Proceedings (download paper)

• "Teaching-Track Faculty at US National Universities" with Gail Hoyt, American Economic Association Papers & Proceedings (download paper)

• “Failure, Withdrawals and Retakes in Intermediate Microeconomics” with KimMarie McGoldrick, forthcoming in the Journal of Economic Education

• “A Comparison of Classroom Experiments, Cooperative Learning, and Lecture in Principles of Microeconomics ”

• "U.S. Teaching-Track Positions: Historical Trends, Job Characteristics, Faculty Perceptions, and Differences Across Gender and Institution Type  " with Gail Hoyt and John Siegfried

• "The Economics Major: Substitutes and Complements" with Bill Bosshardt

• “Effort over the Semester” with Sam Allgood

• “Trading-Off Effort between Courses: Effects on Introductory Economics Course Performance” with Sam Allgood

• “High School Economics, State Mandates, and Preparation for College Level Economics Courses” with Linda English and Gail Hoyt 

Environmental Economics

• “Income, Environmental Disamenity, and Toxic Releases” with Linwood Pendleton, Economic Inquiry (download paper)

• “A Tale of Trade-offs: The Environment and The Economy” with Steve Conroy, Journal of Environmental Management (download paper)

• “The Macroeconomy and Environmental Priorities: An International Investigation” with Steve Conroy 

Business Ethics

• “Have Ethical Attitudes Changed?:  An Intertemporal Comparison of Ethical Perceptions of College Students in 1985 and 2001” with Steve Conroy, Journal of Business Ethics (download paper)

• “Business Ethics and Religion: The Role of Religiosity in Response to Ethical Scenarios” with Steve Conroy, Journal of Business Ethics (download paper)

• “Changing Ethical Attitudes: The Case of Enron and ImClone Scandals” with Steve Conroy, Social Science Quarterly (download paper)

• “Ethical Attitudes of Accountants: Recent Evidence from a Practitioners’ Survey” with Steve Conroy and Charles Stanley, Journal of Business Ethics (download paper)

• “Ethical Cycles and Trends: Implications for Research Methodologies” with Steve Conroy, Journal of Business Ethics (download paper)

• “Ethical Attitudes of Accounting Practitioners: Are Rank and Ethical Attitudes Related?” with Steve Conroy and Frank Pons, Journal of Business Ethics (download paper)

• “To Codify or Not to Codify:  The Effects of Ethical Codes on Ethical Perceptions” with Joe McKinney and Mitch Neubert, Journal of Business Ethics (download paper)

• “Importance of Religious Faith and Ethical Attitudes in Business” with Joe McKinney, Journal of Religion and Business Ethics (download paper)

• “Ethical Attitudes and Religiosity: Evidence from the World Values Survey” with Steve Conroy

• “Business Ethics in Zambia and the US: A Comparison” with Steve Conroy 

Other

• “Water, River, and Community:  Bridging Community, Environment, and Outreach through a Unique Transdisciplinary University-based Course” with Suzanne Nesmith, Charles Walter, Cole Matson, Melissa Mullins and Julia Daniel, Connected Science Learning 3(4), July-August 2021, https://www.nsta.org/connected-science-learning/connected-science-learning-july-august-2021/water-river-and-community