Speaker Bios

Isaac Swenson
Associate Director
Initiative of Regulation and Applied Economic Analysis

Isaac Swensen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University (MSU) and an Associate Director for the MSU Initiative for Regulation and Applied Economic Analysis.  His research primarily centers on risky behaviors and crime, with additional contributions extending to topics such as labor market regulations, health, and education. Dr. Swensen’s work has been featured in most major media outlets and published in highly-regarded economics journals. In recent work, Dr. Swensen has analyzed the effects of expanding substance-abuse treatment services on health and crime; the determinants of sexual assault on college campuses; the link between violent media content and violent behaviors, the role of big-time sports programs in the mission of higher education; the effects of unemployment insurance policies, and the effects of gun-related regulations.

 

Michael Kofoed
Research Assistant Professor
University of Tennessee Knoxville

Mike Kofoed is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville with a joint appointment in the Department of Economics and the Boyd Center for Business and Economics Research in the Haslam College of Business.  He is an IZA Research Fellow, a visiting scholar at the Consumer Finance Institute at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, and an invited researcher at J-PAL North America. Previously, he served as an Associate Professor of Economics and Associate Economics Program Director in the Department of Social Science at the United States Military Academy at West Point. His research interests include the economics of education, K12 policy, higher education finance, economics of financial aid, defense economics, health economics, and applied microeconometrics.

 

Gema Zamarro
Professor of Education Reform and Economics
University of Arkansas

Gema Zamarro (Ph.D. Economics, CEMFI & UNED, Madrid (Spain), 2006) is a Professor in Education Reform and Economics at the University of Arkansas and 21st Century Endowed Chair in Teacher Quality at the Department of Education Reform. Dr. Zamarro is also adjunct Senior Economist at the USC Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR). Her research is motivated by policy-relevant questions and the use of rigorous methods to help inform policy, with a focus on education policy. She has completed studies on heterogeneity in returns to education, the relationship between teacher quality and student performance, the effect of school closing policies on student outcomes, on the properties of value-added methods for estimating teacher quality, and on the effect of dual-language immersion programs on student outcomes, among others. Her current research focuses on the measurement and development of character skills, determinants of gender gaps in STEM, the study of teacher labor markets and teacher pensions, and gender and education impacts of the COVID-19 crisis. Dr. Zamarro’s work has been featured numerous times in the media including Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and USA Today, among others, and it has helped inform policy both at the state and national level.