Charles M Becker, Associate Chair, Director of MA Program, and Research Professor

Charles M. Becker currently serves as Associate Chair of Duke University's Economics Department and concurrently directs the MA program in Economics. He joined Duke in 2003, and held previous positions at the University of Colorado at Denver (1999-2003), the University of Colorado at Boulder (1987-2003), the Economics Institute (1987-1998), and Vanderbilt University (1982-1986). In addition to his positions held in academia, he has been a consultant for the World Bank, a senior economist at the consultancies Pragma and IMCC, and a senior advisor within the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Team Leader of an Asian Development Bank pension reform technical assistance project to the Kyrgyz Republic (1998-1999). Dr. Becker attended Princeton University (Ph.D., 1981). His research interests include economic demography, economic development, economic analysis of transition economies, and urban economics. His most recent publications and research projects include Pension Reform in Transition Economies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) and papers from ongoing projects on techniques for assessing infant mortality undercounting, migration responsiveness to uncertainty in labor market outcomes, disability transition risks in middle income countries, estimating standardized disability rates, exploring the role of education on attitudes toward other ethnicities and, more broadly, the impact of Soviet affirmative action policies on growth outcomes in its periphery. Becker is also interested in factors contributing to minority student achievement in the American context. From 2001-2007, Dr. Becker directed the American Economic Association’s Summer Program and Minority Scholarship Program, during which time he was involved with the mentorship of 195 students, of whom a majority have gone on or are heading to doctoral programs. In 2008, Becker’s contributions to his field were acknowledged when he was named a lifetime member of the American Economic Association and given the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Award by Duke University. He is also a former member of the Board of Directors of the National Economic Association.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	138 Social Science
Office Phone:	(919) 660-1885
Email Address:
Web Page:	http://www.econ.duke.edu/Econ/Faculty/Users/cbecker.html

Teaching (Fall 2009):

• ECON 205.01, MICROECONOMIC THEORY

  Social Sciences 136, MW 02:50 PM-04:05 PM

• ECON 357.01, SEM IN HEALTH ECONOMICS

  Social Sciences 111, M 06:00 PM-09:00 PM

• ECON 145.01, URBAN ECONOMICS Synopsis

  Social Sciences 111, M 06:00 PM-08:30 PM

• ECON 245.01, URBAN ECONOMICS Synopsis

  Social Sciences 111, M 06:00 PM-08:30 PM

Office Hours:

Tuesday and Thursday, 10:00 - 11:00

Education:

PhD	Princeton University	1981
M.A.	Princeton University	1977
BA	Grinnell College	1976

Specialties:

Economic Development

Research Interests: Economic Demography; transition economies; urban and regional economics

Current projects: social security forecasting in Kazakhstan, multi regional social security forecasting in Kyrgyzstan, mortality risk in Kazakhstan, migration in the former USSR, disability risk in Russia, determinants of health care utilization in Russia, Russian financial sector development, suburbanization in Indian cities, minority enrollments in graduate economics programs, determinants of poverty in Kyrgyzstan.

Charles Becker is interested in exploring the economies of such countries as Kazakhstan, India, sub-Saharan Africa, Russia, and Kyrgyzstan. His research has focused on economic demography, social security system forecasting, CGE modeling, mortality and disability risk, determinants of health care utilization, computable general equilibrium simulation modeling, and urban economics. His on-going projects involve assessing infant mortality rates, poverty in developing countries, accidental deaths in middle-income countries, and the performance of minority students in Economics doctoral programs. He recently worked with Irina Merkuryeva on a project investigating, “Disability Risk and Miraculous Recoveries in Russia,” and with Rebecca Anthopolos on, “Gobal Infant Mortality: Initial results from a cross-country infant mortality comparison project.” He also collaborated with Grigory Marchenko, Sabit Khakimzhanov, Ai-Gul Seitenova, and Vladimir Ivliev on a project entitled, “Social Secutiry Reform in Transition Economies: Lessons from Kazakhstan,” and with Amitava Krishna Dutt and Jaime Ros on, “Urbanization and Rural-Urban Migration.”

Areas of Interest:

pension/social security system forecasting
urbanization and migration in developing countries
inter-regional migration in the former USSR
mortality and disability in the former USSR
population aging and fertility in developing and transition countries
US minority student performance and progression to graduate study

Keywords:

demography • transition economies • developing economies • sub-Saharan Africa • Central Asia • Kazakhstan • India • Russia • former Soviet Union • urban economics • migration • mortality • disability • Economics • Applied microeconomics • demography • population • Urban Economics • Urban development • Former USSR • Russia • Africa • Central asia • infant mortality • disablility

Curriculum Vitae

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

1. Charles M. Becker, Grigory A. Marchenko, Sabit Khakimzhanov, Ai-Gul S. Seitenova, and Vladimir Ivliev, SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM IN TRANSITION ECONOMICS: LESSONS FROM KAZAKHSTAN (2009), New York: Palgrave Macmillan
2. Charles M. Becker and Gregory N. Price, Curriculum Intensity in Graduate Preparatory Programs: Impact on Performance and Progression to Graduate Study among Minority Students in Economics, in DOCTORAL EDUCATION AND THE FACULTY OF THE FUTURE, edited by Ronald G. Ehrenberg and Charlotte V. Kuh (2008), Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, ISBN 978-0-8014-4543-9
3. C.M. Becker, Urbanization and Rural-Urban Migration, in INTERNATIONAL HANDBOOK OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS, edited by Amitava Krishna Dutt and Jaime Ros (2008 (forthcoming)), Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar
4. Charles M. Becker and Terry-Ann L. Craigie, W. Arthur Lewis in Retrospect, Review of Black Political Economy, vol. 34 no. 4 (December 2007)
5. Charles M. Becker, Ai-Gul Seitenova and Dina S. Urzhumova, Pension Reform in Central Asia: an Overview, in ECONOMICS OF INTERGENERATIONAL EQUITY IN TRANSITION ECONOMIES, edited by Masaaki Kuboniwa and Yoshiaki Nishimura (2006), Tokyo: Maruzen Publishers (Ch. 9.)