Chris Cotton

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Research: My research blends game theory, experiments, and empirical work. It sits at the intersection of public economics, information economics, and human capital, exploring questions of how incentives, institutions, and evidence drive strategic decisions and policy impact. Primary research interests include:

– The behavioral and environmental foundations of education, health, and inequality. Unraveling the drivers of and challenges for achieving meaningful impact. 

– Evidence-based policy and the connection between science and decision making. Including gaps across fields and between academic expectations and real world applications. 

– Foundations of collective action, collaboration, and working together towards a common goal. 

– Strategic evidence creation and communication.

– Non-market strategy. Policy design. Political influence. 

– Research on the scientific process, e.g., “science of science” or “metascience”. 

You can see my publications and my CV.

Teaching & Program Development: I regularly teach undergraduate and graduate courses in game theory, public economics, development economics, stats & econometrics, experiments, and program evaluation. I also teach professional courses through the Queen’s Smith School of Business and School of Public y, focused on evidence-based policy, and defining and measuring economic, environmental, and social impact. I co-created and teach the Certificate in Professional Impact Analysis, led the redesign of the economics curriculum in Queen’s Masters of Public Administration, and led the development of a global professional-training program on public finance, resource management, and education systems for USAID.

Leadership & Policy Engagement: Director, John Deutsch Institute for the Study of Economic Policy (JDI) at Queen’s University. Former Co-PI and co-director, One Society Network for Emerging Infectious Disease Modeling. Co-lead, CEA’s Canadian Public Economics Group (CPEG). Previously, I helped establish Limestone Analytics, an international research firm focused on measuring economic, environmental, and social impacts. I remain co-owner, but my ongoing involvement is limited to research partnerships aligned with my academic work.

I occasionally collaborate on research with “real-world” organizations interested in conducting rigorous studies or randomized experiments. Please reach out if your organization is interested in an academic partnership to rigorously assess impact, analyze behavior, and understand the reasons for the success and failure of policies and initiatives.

Recent News & Updates:

12/12/25: Lasting Disruption: Economic and Social Impacts of COVID-19 on Canada has been published by McGill-Queen’s University Press. I was the editor for the volume, which represents collaborations among economists, epidemiologists, public health researchers, and other researchers from the One Society Network, the Royal Society of Canada, and the NSERC Emerging Infectious Disease Modeling initiative leadership.
12/2/25: another round of commentary about my experiment incentivizing journal referees has been published at Critical Care Medicine.
12/1/25: two-part summary of my speech at the 38th Annual Smith School of Business Economic Forecast Lunch posted on EconomicsandPolicy.ca. Part 1 (the Canadian economy is broken) and Part 2 (five scenarios for an uncertain economy).
11/28/25: Media coverage in the Whig Standard.
11/27/25: speaker at the KEDCo and Smith School of Business 38th Annual Forecast Lunch.
11/20/25: my forthcoming Journal of Political Economy paper on the reasons kids struggle in school is now online.
11/10/25: Lasting Disruption, my forthcoming book (I am the editor and a contributing author) from McGill-Queen’s University Press is finally going to the printer.
11/7/25: Canadian Public Economics Group annual meetings (I co-lead CPEG).
10/22/25: new publication questioning the interprovincial trade reform promises in IRPP volume.
10/21/25: appointed specialty editor at the upstart Behavioral Public Policy, Frontiers in Behavioral Economics open science journal.
10/20/25: kicking off four weeks of executive teaching in the CPIA program at Smith School of Business.
9/25: new publication in Frontiers in Public Health.
9/5/25: I am teaching a new course: MGMT 988: Stats & Econometrics for masters and PhD students in the Smith School of Business.
9/3/25: 10th International Conference on Peer Review and Scientific Publishing.
8/25: new publication on how droughts and environmental shocks impact education in American Educational Research Journal (flagship journal in education).
6/9/25: editorial in The Hill Times on interprovincial trade reform.
6/6/25: co-authored an article summarizing my recent work on community engagement in support of girls’ education at VoxDev.
5/25: Canadian Economics Association annual meetings (I organized the public economics sessions).
5/25: our March article in Critical Care Medicine kicked off forum discussion and several commentary pieces.
4/25/25: moderator for Queen’s School of Policy Studies public symposium on Integrating Health and Social Policy.
3/25: my work with PhD candidate Daniel Teeter is guiding interprovincial trade reform.
3/25: media coverage for the CCM article in Nature, Nature again, and the Queen’s Gazette.
3/25: new publication in Critical Care Medicine; this was the lead article and was accompanied by a journal forward and editorial.
3/25: expert report on the impact of government policy on inflation during COVID-19 (litigation support).
2/25: new publication in World Bank Economic Review.