Michael Matheis

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics and Business here at Saint Anselm College.  After attending The Ohio State University for my undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering, I worked as a product development engineer and manager at the Boeing Company for 9 years before deciding to pursue an academic career in the field of economics. I completed my Ph.D. at the University of Arizona in the spring of 2015, and am very excited to be here at Saint Anselm College teaching courses in economics and business.

The central goal of my teaching is to provide students with a first class overall educational experience that will create many lifelong benefits. To help achieve this, I strive to make the classroom environment a place that I would enjoy as a student in the class. In short, the principles that I follow as an instructor are a result of asking myself how I would like to be treated if I were in the students' position. I believe it is important to provide information and incentives to the students in a manner that allows learning and success to be attained in different ways, depending on the strengths and abilities of each student. In my classes I work to make sure the students acquire a better understanding of how the world around them functions and how they can succeed in alternative settings. Students are unlikely to remember all of the specific details that they have been taught. However, if they have acquired the ability to think like an economist, to work in a collaborative and inclusive environment, and have further developed their critical thinking skills, then I believe I have succeeded in my main goals as an instructor. You can find examples of my class syllabi at www.mikematheis.com.

I have research interests in environmental and resource economics, economic history, economic development, and applied microeconomics, with a specific focus on the impacts of mining activity on local communities. My current research examines the impact economic development via natural resources has on surrounding areas, with a particular focus on coal mining in the United States. In my dissertation I performed an analysis of the historical impacts of mining activity on the socio-economic conditions and development of communities in the United States from 1870 to the present day. This expanded upon the current literature by using long term county level data in the United States, which allowed me to capture long run impacts and create not only current measures of mining and economic activity, but also lagged and cumulative measures over various time periods.  You can find copies of my working papers at www.mikematheis.com.

In future work I intend to continue this examination of the relationship between economic development, natural resources, and land use policy. The limited amount of resources available and the desire of people around the world to improve their living conditions, imply the questions being discussed today regarding economic development and natural resources will only become more plentiful and important. Going forward I am especially interested in utilizing my experiences as a private sector engineer and manager in product and technology development at the Boeing Company to investigate how technology development can play a role in the relationship between economic development and natural resources.