Chris Cotton

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I’m an economist who studies information, expertise, and policymaking. My work incorporates informational and organizational economics, political economy, and applied microeconomics; while I began as a game theorist, my research and graduate teaching today span theory, econometrics, and experiments. It includes work on how individuals and organizations learn, on the research and evaluation process, and on decision-making under uncertainty and pressure. It has applications in evidence-based policy, education, health, technology, productivity, and the economics of science. My research is also informed by work with real-world institutions, including leading national research-policy networks during COVID-19 and advising many of the world’s leading development and health agencies and organizations. I have published in the Journal of Political Economy, American Economic Review, and other leading journals in and beyond economics (publications, CV).

I have supervised the research of more than 50 PhD and MA students. Graduate students interested in working with me should attend my regular study group. I teach undergraduate, graduate, and professional courses in economic theory, econometrics, evidence-based policy, public economics, and development across Queen’s Department of Economics, School of Policy Studies, and Smith School of Business.

Recent News & Updates:

6/26: PUBLICATION on how affirmative action shapes incentives accepted at Journal of Human Capital.

5/26: EVENT: Canadian Economics Association annual meetings (organized public econ sessions).

5/26/26: MEDIA interview by The Hill Times article on the need for a government COVID inquiry and evidence-based decision-making during crises.

4/30/26: NEW WORKING PAPER mapping the findings of our JPE article into implications for policy.

4/22/26: MEDIA interview for Canadian Affairs article on federal lobbying reform.

4/16/26: MEDIA profile by Smith Business Insights of the “AI-Expertise Paradox“.

4/13/26: MEDIA interview for The Hill Times article on campaign finance disclosure rules.

4/10/26: OP-ED. The Hub published an excerpt from our Lasting Disruption paper.

2/26: PUBLICATION introducing The AI Expertise Paradox in the National Academy of Science’s Issues in Science and Technology (first online in Feb., in Spring ’26 print issue)

1/26: PUBLICATION on student effort and disengagement in the Journal of Political Economy

1/26: PUBLICATION on new methods for disentangling program component impacts in multifaceted programs in Journal of Development Effectiveness

12/28/25: NEW WORKING PAPER on star-performers on teams and collective action.

12/26: PUBLICATION of my edited book Lasting Disruption by McGill-Queen’s University Press on COVID-19’s impacts on the economy and society. (I also wrote or coauthored 6 of the 15 chapters.)

12/2/25: PUBLICATION. Another round of commentary about our experiment at Critical Care Medicine.

11/27/25: EVENT. Speaker at the KEDCo and Smith School of Business 38th Annual Forecast Lunch.
MEDIA coverage by The Whig Standard of the event.
OP-ED – Summary of my speech posted on EconomicsandPolicy.ca, including Part 1 (the Canadian economy is broken) and Part 2 (five scenarios for an uncertain economy).

11/7/25: EVENT. Canadian Public Economics Group annual meetings (I co-lead CPEG).

10/22/25: POLICY PUBLICATION questioning the promises of interprovincial trade reform in IRPP volume.

10/21/25: APPOINTMENT. appointed specialty editor at the upstart Behavioral Public Policy, Frontiers in Behavioral Economics open science journal.

10/20/25: EVENT. Kicking off four weeks of executive teaching in the CPIA program at Smith School of Business.

9/22/26: PUBLICATION on how evidence shaped COVID-19 policy at Frontiers in Public Health

9/3/25: EVENT. 10th International Conference on Peer Review and Scientific Publishing.

8/25: PUBLICATION on droughts and education appeared as the lead issue article at the AERJ.

6/9/25: OP-ED. The Hill Times published my editorial on interprovincial trade reform.

6/25: PUBLICATION on incentivizing referees at a medical journal was the issue’s featured article at Critical Care Medicine accompanied by the issue’s forward and editorial.

6/6/25: OP-ED. VoxDev published my article summarizing recent work on community engagement in support of girls’ education.

5/25: EVENT. Canadian Economics Association annual meetings (organized the public economics sessions).

5/25: PUBLICATION. Our March article in Critical Care Medicine kicked off forum discussion and several commentary pieces.

4/25/25: EVENT. moderator for Queen’s School of Policy Studies public symposium on Integrating Health and Social Policy.

3/25: POLICY PUBLICATION. JDI Policy Insight article is guiding interprovincial trade reform.

3/25: MEDIA coverage for the forthcoming CCM article in Nature, Nature again, and the Queen’s Gazette.

3/25: EXPERT REPORT on the impact of policy on inflation during COVID-19 (litigation support).