Economic framing
Identify incentives, behavior, market mechanisms, welfare effects, and testable economic hypotheses.
STRATEGIC RESEARCH COLLABORATION
Domain expertise meets economic evidence.
ERS–WVSU helps researchers identify and strengthen the economic, data-analytic, and causal-inference dimensions of their work—while preserving the scientific leadership and distinct expertise of each discipline.
01 / RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT CAPABILITIES
Ways ERS can strengthen a project.
These are areas for methodological collaboration and research development—not claims of completed projects or guaranteed consulting services.
Research design & identification
Clarify comparisons, counterfactuals, causal assumptions, timing, and threats to inference.
Econometrics & data analysis
Strengthen measurement, model choices, diagnostics, reproducibility, and interpretation.
Impact & cost-benefit analysis
Assess distributional effects, adoption, effectiveness, costs, and policy relevance.
Joint papers & grant concepts
Develop the economic and empirical contributions of research proposals and manuscripts.
Student methods development
Connect students to applied research questions, data practice, and collaborative learning.
02 / HOW COLLABORATION WORKS
A practical route from idea to evidence.
The format is collaborative: define the problem together, identify the economic contribution, and agree on the research roles before developing the analysis.
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.
03 / WHO SHOULD PRESENT
A clear fit for our seminar.
We welcome researchers from every discipline when there is a meaningful opportunity to develop economic reasoning, quantitative methods, or causal identification.
A project does not need a finished economics component to qualify. It does need a plausible opportunity for one.
A substantive economic question
The project concerns incentives, allocation, behavior, adoption, costs, markets, inequality, or economic and policy consequences.
An empirical challenge worth working through
The study would benefit from data strategy, econometric analysis, identification, measurement, or careful interpretation.
A willingness to collaborate
The presenter is interested in constructive critique, refining the study, and discussing shared intellectual contributions.
04 / RESEARCH CONTEXT AT WVSU
A timely moment for research at WVSU.
WVSU announced a federal award in October 2026 supporting a planned Agriculture Complex. This is one example of the university’s expanding research infrastructure, and an opportunity to explore complementary economic and empirical collaborations. ERS–WVSU does not claim a formal role in that project.
Read WVSU’s announcement05 / WORK WITH ERS–WVSU
Have a question
that could become stronger?
We welcome initial conversations about the economic or empirical contribution to your work.