Distinguished Professorship of Economics
With contributions from the C.D. Spangler Foundation, the Distinguished Professorship of Economics was created in 2015. It is dedicated to excellence in undergraduate teaching and research, improving the teaching of economics, conducting research, disseminating current knowledge on specific economic issues, and working cooperatively with any group interested in enhancing the economic knowledge of the citizenry. The professorship will play a critical role in developing an economics program that is academically sound and nationally visible.
Dr. Mónica García-Pérez is the Distinguished Professor of Economics in the Department of Management, Marketing, Entrepreneurship, and Fire & Emergency Services Administration -Broadwell College of Business and Economics (BCBE) at Fayetteville State University, North Carolina, and a Senior Research Associate at the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University. Her research concentrates on health economics, immigration, labor economics, examining wealth inequality across race/ethnicity and the impact of health shocks. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland-College Park and an MSc. in Economics from University College London -London, UK.
She has published her research in journals such as Demography, American Economic Review P&P, Journal of Economics Perspective, Journal of Economic Education, International Education Planning, Review of Black Political Economy, and Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy. She is the co-editor of the American Journal of Health Economics – Special Edition on Health Equity. Prof. Garcia-Perez has taught several courses: Econometrics (undergraduate and graduate), Economics of Immigration, Economics of Health Disparities, Health Economics, Labor Economics. and Principles of Microeconomics. She has advanced discussions on health disparities, equity, and population health using the stylized techniques of causal inference and statistics, but also starting key partnerships that advance theory into practice.
Prof. Garcia-Perez has been influential in starting external partnerships across institutions. She was an influential member in the collaborative process between SCSU and CentraCare System, a healthcare provider, to create the SCSU Center for Health Outcome Policy Research (CHOPR). She has written several reports on the St. Cloud residents’ local opinions about health initiatives, immigration, and overall childhood and adult well-being through the lens of health disparities and access to care. She actively works with U.S. Census Bureau sensitive administrative data. She is the 2020 past-President of the American Society of Hispanic Economists (ASHE), the Director of the Faculty Research Group of Immigrants in Minnesota, a Research Scholar at the Roy Wilkins Center, the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, and a Senior Research Associate at The Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity, Duke University, a selected participant of the Reinventing Our Communities (ROC) Program organized by the Federal Reserve of Philadelphia for Central Minnesota, and a past Co-Director of the SCSU Survey Center. She was a board member of the local non-profit research organization Hispanic Advocacy and Community Empowerment through Research (HACER).
- García-Pérez, M. (2024), Special Issue on Health Equity, Foreword, American Journal of Health Economics, 10(2), 159-161.
- García-Pérez, M., A. De Kesel Lofthus, D. Tilstra, K. Switzer, K. Williamson. (2024). Food as medicine: FOODRx for Patients with Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease in Central Minnesota, Diabetology, 5(1), 110-128.
- Fernandez, J., García-Pérez, M., Orozco-Aleman, Sandra. (2023). Unraveling the Hispanic Health Paradox. Journal of Economics Perspective, 37(1), 145-68.
- Button, P., Collins, L. A., Denteh, A., García-Pérez, M., Harrell, B., Isaac, E., & Ziedan, E. (2021). Teaching controversial and contemporary topics in economics using a jigsaw literature review activity. The Journal of Economic Education, 52(4), 286-295.
- Diez, E., Freites, Y., García-Pérez, M., Ordóñez, L., Pineda, J., Requena, J. (2021). Migración de investigadores venezolanos: impactos e implicaciones de política pública (Venezuelan Researchers Migration: Impact and Public Policy Implications). Interciencia, 46(1), 8-18.
- García-Pérez, Mónica. (2019) Recent Immigrants and Public Charge: Access to Coverage and New Legal Arrivals' Employment, Self-Employment, and Health Insurance After Medicaid Expansions and the Marketplace. The Review of Black Political Economy, 46 (3), 193-208.
- García-Pérez, M. (2018). DACA recipients and their health insurance dream: Employment, schooling, and health coverage. Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, 2(1), 77-108.
- García-Pérez, Mónica and Johnson R. (2017). Understanding the effect of mentoring programs on high school graduation rates: Access to Opportunity Program in St. Cloud Minnesota. Educational Planning. 24(2), 41-54.
- García-Pérez, M. (2016). Converging to American: Healthy immigrant effect in children of immigrants. American Economic Review P&P, 106(5), 461-66.
- García-Pérez, Mónica, Acevedo R., Harmath P., and Peña O. (2016) Percepción Política de la Pobreza: Un Análisis Multimétodo a la Venezuela Contemporánea (Political Perception of Poverty: A Multimethod analysis of Contemporary Venezuela). Revista Venezolana de Economía Social, (CAYAPA) 2016.
- Acevedo R. and García-Pérez, M. (2015). The Price of Crime: How Crime Affects Private Investment in South America. Economía & Región. 9 (2), 47-74.
- Andersson, F., García-Pérez, M., Haltiwanger, J., McCue, K., & Sanders, S. (2014). Workplace Concentration of Immigrants. Demography, 51(6), 2281-2306.
- García-Pérez, Mónica. (2013). Health care usage and health status of immigrant children: The effects of nativity versus citizenship. American Economic Review P&P, 103(3): 412-17.
- García-Pérez, Mónica. (2012). A Matching Model on the Use of Immigrant Social Networks and Referral Hiring. Theoretical Economics Letters, 2, 379-384
Further, Prof. Garcia-Perez is passionate about mentoring undergraduate and graduate students in internal and external national programs.
- “Achieving Health Equity for Hispanics: The Role of Economics,” ASHEcon Panel Webinar on Economics of Health Equity Interest Workshop.
- “Families Divided, Coverage Denied Health Insurance Among US-Born Latino Children in Mixed-Status Families” with Joaquin A.A. Rubalcaba and Ed Vargas. Under review American Journal of Public Health.
- “From Health to Wealth, and Vice Versa: The Relation between Health and Wealth in the Hispanic Community.” Presented at the 2022 NBER Summer Institute Health and Aging. Submitted to the Journal of Aging and Health.
- “The Elusiveness of Life for Venezuelan Migrant Mothers” with Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes and Fernando Pinto Hernandez. Submitted to Health Economics.
- “Building a healthier environment: An analysis of the impact of a community health initiative on childhood health outcomes” with D. Tilstra, J. Gertken, J. Geislinger, and J. Inkster. Submitted to Child: Care, Health and Development.
- “Incarceration History, Credit Scores, and Wealth Accumulation: Evidence from Baltimore City,” with Sarah Gaither and William Darity Jr. 2020 Working Paper Series of the Washington Center of Equitable Growth. Submitted to Social Science Research
- "Local labor demand factors and immigrant workers: is the effect of minimum wage on disemployment zero?” Submitted to NBER Immigrants in the US 2024 Spring Conference.
- BCBE Research Seminar Series
- Distinguished Economic Lecture
- Econ-Fest
- Distinguished Seminar Participations