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Christopher S. Cotton
Professor

Department of Economics
Queen’s University
cotton@econ.queensu.ca

I am a Professor in the Department of Economics at Queen’s University, where I hold the Jarislowsky-Deutsch Chair in Economic & Financial Policy and am the Director of the John Deutsch Institute for the Study of Economic Policy.

My research applies game theory, experimental economics and empirical methods to study public policy questions. Much of my research has focused on lobbying, political influence and campaign finance reform, and I have also worked extensively on the evaluation of education policies and international development projects, and issues surrounding the allocation of funding across projects and programs.

I am currently leading the official evaluation of several large international development interventions, including a Department for International Development UK Girls Education Challenge project in Zimbabwe, and World Vision International’s Youth Ready program in El Salvador and Honduras. On these and other projects, I partner with Limestone Analytics. More detail on some of this work and how it relates to my academic research can be found on my ongoing projects page.

I am also one of the developers behind the new Certified Professional Impact Analyst (CPIA) program at Queen’s, which teaches social sector and international development professionals how to incorporate evidence and rigorous evaluation into the design and financing of their projects.