Rebecca Thornton
Professor
Professional Summary:
Rebecca Thornton is a professor in the Department of Economics in the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University. Prior to that she was an associate professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an assistant professor at the University of Michigan in the Department of Economics and Population Studies Center. Thornton’s research focuses on health, education and the status of women in developing countries. Across these topics, her work addresses core issues within Economics, including the role of subjective beliefs in decision-making and how social networks influence behavior and beliefs. Thornton has been the principal or co-investigator on studies in India, Jordan, Malawi, Nicaragua, Nepal and Uganda. These studies have involved collecting longitudinal data and conducting field experiments to understand important development issues such as HIV prevention, family planning uptake, enrollment in health insurance, effects of merit-based scholarships and effective ways to improve early grade literacy.
Thornton’s work has received national and international recognition with papers published in top general interest and field journals. She has received funding from agencies such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, ESRC-DFID, the International Growth Centre, and the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie). Thornton is an affiliate with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and BREAD (Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development) and received her PhD in Political Economy and Government, a joint degree in Economics and Public Policy, from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Education:
- 2006 – PhD, Political Economy and Government, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, Massachusetts
- 2004 – MA, Political Economy and Government, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, Massachusetts
- 1999 – BS, Mathematics and German, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Courses:
- HSR 6V98 – Special Studies in Health Services Research
Research Interests:
- Development Economics
- Education
- Health
- Gender
Selected Publications:
- Buhl-Wiggers, J., Kerwin, J., Sebastián Muñoz, J., Smith, J., and Thornton, R. “Some Children Left Behind? Distributional Impacts of Increasing Teaching Literacy in Uganda.” Journal of Econometrics.
- Buhl-Wiggers, J., Jones, S., and Thornton, R. “Boys lagging behind: Unpacking Gender Differences in Academic Achievement across East Africa.” 2021. International Journal of Educational Development. Volume 83, 102382.
- Kerwin, J. and Thornton, R. 2021. “Making the Grade: The Sensitivity of Education Program Effectiveness to Input Choices and Outcome Measures.” The Review of Economics and Statistics. 103 (2): 251–264.
- Godlonton, S., Munthali, A. and Thornton, R. 2016. “Responding to Risk: Circumcision, Information, and HIV Prevention.” Review of Economics and Statistics, May; 98(2): 333-349.
- Thornton, R. 2008. “The Demand for, and Impact of, Learning HIV Status.” American Economic Review, 98(5): 1829–1863.