
Rachel Deyette Werkema
Lecturer in Economics
I am a social scientist interested in issues of inequality with a focus on education, particularly under-resourced public schools and students from less privileged backgrounds.
I've conducted research on school choice and college access for urban students, looking at barriers to participation. I also spent a year observing a newly introduced calculus class at an inner-city high school. I'm interested in examining opportunity gaps across communities, school districts, and institutions of higher education. Since becoming a mother to twin girls, I've also become interested in the role of volunteering for parents and especially women, both in terms of civic contributions and professional development.
At Wellesley, I teach principles of microeconomics and macroeconomics. I love seeing those "a-ha!" moments when economics starts to make sense. I also teach courses in education policy and economic development. In the economics of education policy, we use an economics framework to study education as an "industry" and to analyze schools, teachers, and curriculum choices as well as current reforms and priorities. In development, we are trying to uncover reasons to explain why some countries are rich and others are poor.
I've taught principles courses to both undergraduates and master's students as well as adult learners, and I continue to teach a basic micro class to mid-career students every summer. I also earned Massachusetts teacher certification in secondary social studies by teaching in an urban high school while working on my PhD.
I love to read -- fiction and non-fiction -- and enjoy sharing book tips with my now teenage daughters (suggestions from students welcome!). I'm a big proponent of public libraries and an active volunteer at my local one.
Education
- B.A., Wesleyan University
- M.A., Harvard University
- Ph.D., Harvard University
Current and upcoming courses
Economics of Education Policy
ECON226
Uses a microeconomic framework to analyze important questions in education policy about school finance, organization, efficiency, and equity. Is education a private good? What are the costs and benefits of expanded education for individuals, communities, and countries? What are the consequences of more widespread early childhood education and college attendance? What is the role of teachers, peers, and families in education? Does school choice promote student achievement? Applies concepts such as comparative statics, subsidies, externalities, perfect and imperfect competition, cost-benefit analysis, and welfare analysis to these and other questions. Each semester includes one or two policy discussions on contemporary issues in education.
(ECON 226 and EDUC 226 are cross-listed courses.)-
Principles of Microeconomics
ECON101
This first course in economics provides the fundamental tools for exploration of the field. Microeconomics considers the decisions of households and firms about what to consume and what to produce, and the efficiency and equity of market outcomes. Supply and demand analysis is developed and applied. Policy issues include price controls, competition and monopoly, income inequality , and the role of government in market economies. Students who have AP or IB credit in economics, and who elect ECON 101, forfeit the AP or IB credit. ECON 101P is an alternative course open to students who have not fulfilled the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement.