AEASP | Howard University Department of Economics

Dr. Durronjae Boothe is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Howard University. He holds a PhD and MA in Economics from Georgia State University. He also earned an MSc in Economics and a BSc in Mathematics with a concentration in Actuarial Science from the University of the West Indies, Mona, in Kingston, Jamaica. Dr. Boothe is an applied microeconomist whose research interests include labor economics, education economics, and development economics. His current research agenda focuses primarily on education economics.

Matthew N. White is an economist at Econ-ARK, a non-profit developer of open source computing tools for structural economic research. After growing up in New Hampshire, he did my undergraduate studies at Cornell University, and then pursued graduate study in economics at Johns Hopkins University. After receiving his PhD, he was an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Delaware from 2013 to 2023, and held a Visiting Scholar position at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2015-16.

Sergio Urzua is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Maryland. He is a Research Associate at the NBER, Research Fellow at IZA, and International Research Fellow at Clapes-UC. His research focuses on labor, development and applied econometrics. His research agenda includes the evaluation of social/policy interventions in developing economies. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 2007.

Felipe Juan is a postdoctoral scholar at Howard University’s Center for an Equitable Economy and Sustainable Society (E2S2). His research focuses on labor, urban, and health economics. He has worked on unemployment insurance, wealth inequality, worker mobility, and immigration, among other subjects.

David Card is the Class of 1950 Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. Before joining Berkeley he taught at University of Chicago in 1982-83 and Princeton University from 1983 to 1996. He has held visiting appointments at Columbia University, Harvard University, UCLA, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. From 2012 to 2017 he was Director of the Labor Studies Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Dr. Tingting Xiong is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Howard University's Department of Economics, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in International Economics. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. Her research projects focus on international capital flows, multinational corporation activities, international trade, and economic growth.

Dr. Omari H. Swinton is a professor in the Economics department at Howard University, where he teaches introductory, intermediate, and urban economics. He is currently the Director of Graduate Studies and Chair. His research interests include labor economics and education. He has papers examining the teenage labor market, the benefits from attending HBCU's, and the returns to a college education.

Ann Yang is a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, where she majored in economics and minored in applied statistics and mathematics. As an undergraduate student, Ann worked as a research assistant at the University of Michigan's Development Economics Lab and as an instructional writing fellow for the University's introductory microeconomics course. Outside of academics, Ann enjoys engaging in her student organizations which aim to promote small Asian-owned businesses in Ann Arbor.

Melina Valencia is an undergraduate at the College of the Holy Cross, majoring in Economics and minoring in Religious Studies. As a first-generation college student, she is interested in using economic research to address real-world issues. She worked on an econometric research project titled *Health Expenditures and Life Expectancy Across the 50 U.S. States*, which deepened her interest in public policy and data-driven research.

Raven Shaw is an Honors Economics major, Political Science and Mathematics double minor from San Francisco, CA. Raven seeks to work within the government or NGOs, using her research to develop and implement public policies that drive equitable economic reform, particularly for marginalized communities. She aims to contribute to the conversation on reimagining Black economic resiliency and be part of the movement that merges innovation, wealth, and sustainability to transform Black communities worldwide.

Department of Economics

AEASP 2025 Faculty Durronjae Boothe

AEASP 2025 Faculty Matthew White

AEASP 2025 Faculty Sergio Urzua

AEASP 2025 Faculty Felipe Juan

AEASP 2025 Faculty David Card

AEASP 2025 Faculty Tingting Xiong

AEASP 2025 Faculty Omari Swinton

AEASP 2025 Scholar Ann Yang

AEASP 2025 Scholar Melina Valencia

AEASP 2025 Scholar Raven Shaw