With immediate effect, Terra McKinnish (University of Colorado Boulder) joins the group of Editors of the Journal of Population Economics. She will work with Editors Alessandro Cigno (University of Florence), Shuaizhang Feng (Jinan University), Oded Galor (Brown University), Editor-in-Chief Klaus F. Zimmermann (UNU-MERIT) and with Managing Editors Michaella Vanore (UNU-MERIT) and Madeline Zavodny (University of North Florida).

GLO: What brought you to economics?

Terra McKinnish: I started as an undergraduate economics major intending to pursue an MBA, but then came to appreciate that economics is a social science that can be used to study a wide variety of interesting topics.

GLO: What is your field of specialization and what excites you most?

Terra McKinnish: My research has focused on topics in population economics and labor economics. I am most interested in how individuals make key life decisions about education, location, family structure and work. My recent research has particularly focused on marriage: how do we pick our spouse and what are the consequences of that choice?

GLO: In the next future, will there be journal space in economics beyond coronavirus research?

Terra McKinnish: I certainly hope so! Economics journals currently support a broad range of research topics, and I like to think that won’t change. Certainly I don’t think we will see many papers using 2020-2021 data for topics that are not specifically Covid19 focused, so there will be a major disruption to non-Covid19 research in that sense.

GLO: Conferences and networking play a major role in academia; will this go on after the crisis?

Terra McKinnish: Yes, I think we will get back there in the medium-run. In the shorter run, I am concerned for younger researchers, who most benefit from face-to-face opportunities to establish their research reputation and develop a network. I hope departments will think about this when scheduling (virtual) seminars, and will consider including less established researchers.

GLO: Is the profession publishing too much?

Terra McKinnish: I think the Economics profession is producing an enormous amount of high-quality research. There is so much competition and standards are very high! The profession has been particularly invigorated by the international diffusion of modern research methodology, which has resulted in high-caliber research being conducted for a wider variety of national and international settings.

GLO: What makes in your view a good academic journal?

Terra McKinnish: An attention to consequential research questions and contributions, combined with high methodological standards, and attention to clarity in exposition.

GLO: Face female researchers still disadvantages in the publishing process?

Terra McKinnish: As someone who has been heavily involved in mentoring junior women in economics, including several years as Associate Chair of Mentoring of CSWEP (AEA standing Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession), I think most of the hurdles for women are adjacent to the publication process rather than directly in the process itself. If women have disproportionate service loads, this will affect their ability to conduct research. If women do not receive the same mentoring, feedback and encouragement as men on their research, this will affect the quality of their publications. If women’s contributions to co-authored research are judged differently than men’s, this will affect their career trajectory.

With Editor and GLO Fellow Terra McKinnish spoke Klaus F. Zimmermann, GLO President & Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Population Economics.

GLO Fellow Terra McKinnish is a Professor of Economics and Faculty Associate of the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she is also the Director of the Center to Advance Research and Training in the Social Sciences (CARTSS).  Her research focuses on topics in population economics and labor economics, with particular interest in marital sorting, marital quality and women’s labor market outcomes. She has been an Associate Editor of the Journal of Population Economics and she serves on the Editorial Board of Demography.

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Editor-in-Chief & Managing Editors

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Further Journal of Population Economics News:
– The Journal invites studies dealing with the demographic aspects of the Coronavirus Crisis. Qualified articles are published as soon as possible in regular issues.
– “Impacts of Social and Economic Factors on the Transmission of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China” by Qiu, Yun & Chen, Xi & Shi, Wei
Forthcoming: Journal of Population Economics, Issue 4, 2020.
PDF of the prepublication revised draft.

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