01
Frame the economics
Clarify incentives, behavior, constraints, trade-offs, and the economic mechanisms behind a research question.
ECONOMIC THINKING × DISCIPLINARY EXPERTISE
Bring the research.
Strengthen the evidence.
ERS–WVSU connects scholars across disciplines with economic reasoning, empirical research design, data analysis, and causal inference. Our seminars are designed to move promising work toward credible, policy-relevant evidence.
ECONOMIC FRAMING · DATA ANALYSIS · CAUSAL INFERENCE
ECONOMICS × RESEARCH / EXCHANGE
THE ERS–WVSU APPROACHBetter questions · Credible methods · Shared researchWORKING ACROSSAgriculture·Education·Health·Business·Natural sciences & policy
01 / THE VALUE WE ADD
Your expertise.
A stronger economic lens.
Research in agriculture, education, health, science, business, and other fields often raises economic questions. ERS–WVSU offers a focused space to identify those questions and develop the empirical strategy needed to answer them.
02
Strengthen the methods
Discuss data, econometric specifications, identification strategies, uncertainty, and causal interpretation.
03
Develop collaboration
Explore joint research designs, stronger papers, policy analysis, and interdisciplinary grant concepts.
Bring disciplinary expertise; explore what economics and credible empirical research can add.
Explore research partnerships02 / OUR COLLABORATION MODEL
From a research idea
to a testable contribution.
Each collaboration begins with a real disciplinary question. We explore the economic and empirical angle, then agree on next steps and contributions.
Bring the disciplinary question
A scientific problem, early result, or promising research idea.
Find the economic contribution
Identify mechanisms, outcomes, incentives, and plausible hypotheses.
Strengthen the empirical strategy
Discuss data, design, estimation, and credible interpretation.
Agree on the next research step
Define scope, responsibilities, credit, and potential outputs.
THE QUESTION → THE DESIGN → THE EVIDENCE
04 / ILLUSTRATIVE RESEARCH THEMES
Economic questions
in every field.
These themes demonstrate the breadth of possible collaboration. They are not announcements of projects, grants, or institutional partnerships.
Agriculture & food systems
Economic choices, resource use, producer behavior, and agricultural markets.
Education & human capital
Learning, skills, opportunity, and evidence on programs that affect outcomes.
Health & community well-being
Costs, access, incentives, and the distribution of benefits and risks.
Technology, work & enterprise
Innovation, adoption, productivity, entrepreneurship, and labor markets.
Environment & regional resilience
Economic trade-offs, natural resources, shocks, and Appalachian communities.
Public policy & institutions
Policy evaluation, institutional incentives, implementation, and welfare.
Representative areas of interest only. Detailed proposals and unannounced research remain with their respective teams.
05 / A PRECISE INTERDISCIPLINARY MISSION
Open across disciplines.
Focused on economic evidence.
ERS–WVSU welcomes research from any discipline when economic reasoning, quantitative analysis, or causal inference can meaningfully strengthen the work. The goal is substantive collaboration—not a general-purpose lecture series.
Our selection principles06 / START A RESEARCH CONVERSATION
A research question
worth developing together.
Bring an early idea, a working study, or an unresolved empirical challenge. You do not need a finished economics component: discovering it together may be the first contribution.