Welcome to Curtis R. Price’s web page @ Purdue
Hi. My name is Curtis and I am currently a Ph.D. candidate
at Purdue University in Economics.
The picture above is a hike I took in 2003 on the
------------------------------------------------------ Papers and Current Research (all unfinished) ------------------------------
My current research agenda focuses on labor market discrimination/gender differences in the labor force. Like many other graduate students, I planned on doing research in several different areas as a portion of my dissertation but I quickly learned that research is a long process. As such, my current portfolio of research is focused in labor economics. Nonetheless, I have managed to sample many different research methodologies within this current line of research. My advisor Jack Barron has been very encouraging and helpful in my research, both empirical and theoretical, and Tim Cason has been an invaluable mentor in helping me develop my laboratory skills and allowing me the use of the Vernon Smith Experimental Economics Laboratory (VSEEL).
My first research project below is an experimental paper that is in the data collection phase with a grant from the National Science Foundation. My second and third papers below are related in that they deal with gender differences in promotion. In the second paper, I compose a model of promotion to investigate the impact of better information about a worker’s productivity. I then test the implications with data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. In my last paper, I am concerned with the evolution of the promotion data within the NLSY. Prior studies have shown a disparity between men and women in promotion standards but this data was from the 1988-1990 data calls of the NLSY79 cohort. During these years the subjects of the NLSY were between the ages of 19-33. More recent data from the 1996-2000 year data calls is analyzed and differences are highlighted in how promotion experience has changed for a group of individuals now between the ages of 31-44.
Gender, Competition, and Managerial Decisions (Oct 2007)(Experimental)
Gender Sorting and the Promotion Gap (Oct 2007)
Changing Promotion Standards- Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Cohort (Sept 2007)
About Me
I grew up in Mattoon Illinois on the outskirts of town. My father was a plumber and a farmer and I am lucky to have the most wonderful mother who, among numerous other things, took care of the five children her and my father raised. As a young man I loved to fish and be outdoors with my father. We spent many days out on Lake Shelbyville fishing or at our family farm doing the things that needed to be done. I graduated from Mattoon Senior High School in 1991 and went right to college that August. Subsequently, I received my BA with a double major in mathematics and economics from Eastern Illinois University in 1995. I then attended the University of Montana and received an MA in mathematics. After a few years of actuarial work and teaching mathematics at William Rainey Harper College, and Maryville University of St. Louis I decided to pursue my Ph.D. in economics.
While at Eastern Illinois University I played football for the Panthers and Bob Spoo. My position coach was Randy Melvin.
My CV (Word Document) (PDF soon to come)
My Teaching Philosophy
Teaching is a big part of what I love about being in academia. I believe that teaching is too important to take a back seat to any of my regular duties or my research. Actually my teaching and my research are complementary. Teaching helps me understand fundamental concepts and also helps guide my future research. All my current research projects are actually ideas that evolved from reading and talking with other students about discrimination and gender differences that are taught in undergraduate economics courses.
For more than a decade, I have taught college students from all different levels ranging from non-traditional students in community college, small private school students, midsize state universities, and students of large universities. Each type of student poses its own special circumstances and I feel that I am lucky to have had such an array of experiences. It certainly has helped me become a more knowledgeable and effective teacher. I am also been lucky to have taught at the college level in two vastly different fields, mathematics and economics. This has helped me sample different pedagogies and learn what works for me in the classroom.
I first started teaching in graduate school while studying mathematics at Eastern Illinois University. I learned a lot about teaching. In general, it was sink or swim in the math department. New graduate student teachers were given total control over a class including designing a syllabus, determining policy (attendance, homework, number of exams, grading scale, etc.), and format of the class (lecture, group work, etc.). I cannot say that I was instantly a good teacher but this did serve as a learning experience and helped me become the teacher I am today. During my time as a graduate student at Eastern, I learned how to organize and present my thoughts on the board. This, I believe, is something that all new teachers take for granted and are (at first) not very good at. Another important development during this time in my pedagogy is that I learned that it is in my best interest to keep students interested, because if I didn’t, I would have a group of very uninterested students, very quickly. Additionally, teaching mathematics has taught me that while teaching economics it is important to be interactive and justify the concepts with simple “real life” examples of the material. Economics is, after all, a social science and everything has a logical antecedent within the world that we live.
The most valuable development of my teaching style within the last several years has been the application of experimental economics. The design and implementation of simple experiments in the classroom can help students understand the subtle but important aspects of economics. Experiments in my classes help me motivate students while also forcing them to think critically about the subject. Additionally, this experience draws focus on important applications and the limitations of field data and econometric analysis, thus serving as a primer for advanced classes such as econometrics and field courses.
Overall I would say that my teaching style is a dynamic method. I like to lecture but lecture can be boring and not very informative at times. As a change-up, I like to run simple experiments to get students to think about the topics and relate them back to the “real world”. This usually leads to rather broad questions that touch the core concepts of economics and science. But again, as with any teaching method, too much of one thing can become boring (for both the students and I) so the ideal situation is to have a little bit of lecture, some interaction/discussion, and when the opportunity arises, an simple interactive experiment. Just the right amount of each teaching methodology, at the correct time, keeps students connected to the topics and more importantly to the course.
Suggestions and questions are welcome.
Email me at :
crprice(at)purdue.edu