Announcing the Merton J. Peck Prize for distinction and excellence in undergraduate teaching

Professor Fieler’s research focuses on international trade in developing countries, using quantitative models to study contrasting patterns of bilateral trade flows, prices, and factor usage between developed and developing countries. During the 2024-25 academic year, she taught ECON 407: International Finance, which explores the implications of increasing integration of the world economy, through international trade, multinational production, and financial markets. Topics include foreign exchange markets, capital flows, trade and current account imbalances, coordination of monetary and fiscal policy in a global economy, financial crises and their links to sovereign debt crises and currency devaluations.

Professor Humphries’ research combines economics and econometrics methods with large administrative data to inform policy, and is largely focused on education and housing. During the 2024-25 academic year, he taught ECON 117: Introduction to Data Analysis and Econometrics, which provides students with exposure to modern empirical economics and how to develop credible economic analysis. This course emphasizes working directly and early with data, through such economic examples as studies of environmental/natural resource economics, intergenerational mobility, discrimination, and finance.

Professor Geanakoplos was the inventor of the collateral general equilibrium (1997) and the leverage cycle (1997, 2003, 2008, 2010), which then became one of the leading explanations of the subsequent 2008 global financial crisis. During the 2024-25 academic year, he taught ECON 350: Mathematical Economics: General Equilibrium Theory, which introduces students—many who go on to graduate study in economics or careers in quantitative finance—to general equilibrium theory and its application to finance and the theory of money.

Professor Polak is an expert on decision theory, game theory, and economic history. His work explores economic agents whose goals are richer than those captured in traditional models. During the 2024-25 academic year, he taught ECON 159: Game Theory—one of Yale College’s most popular courses—and ECON 160: Games and Information, a follow up game theory course that builds on the learnings from ECON 159. Both courses explore ideas in strategic thinking related to economics and politics such as dominance, backward induction, Nash equilibrium, evolutionary stability, commitment, credibility, asymmetric information, adverse selection, and signaling.

Professor Toseland’s research and teaching interests span a variety of domestic policy issues including economic mobility, education, housing, health, and the environment. During the 2024-25 academic year, she taught ECON 002: Social Issues in America, which investigates how data and economics can be used to understand and solve some of the most pressing contemporary social issues in the United States. She also leads the Department's flagship Senior Essay, which provides opportunities for a student to engage in independent economic research. These essays contain original research and/or analysis aimed at examining a hypothesis using the tools of economics, and are supervised by Department faculty.