Sarah West

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An environmental and public finance economist, Professor West has studied the behavioral and equity effects of policies for the reduction of vehicle pollution. West also conducts research on the demand for fuel economy, the value of open space in urban areas, and the effect of public transit on land use and property values. Her work has been published in, among other journals, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Regional Science and Urban Economics, and in the American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings. She also co-edited the book Environmental Issues in Latin America and the Caribbean (Springer Press, 2005). Her research has been funded by the Public Policy Institute of California, the National Institutes of Health, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

West chaired the Economics Department at Macalester from 2018-2021, and she was a member of the board of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists from 2014-2018. An award-winning teacher, she has supervised many award-winning honors theses and has coauthored publications with Macalester undergraduates.

BA: International Studies and Spanish, Macalester College 1991
MA: Latin American Studies, University of Texas at Austin, 1994
MS: Economics, University of Texas at Austin 1997
PhD: Economics, University of Texas at Austin, 1999