Biography
Mary Burke joined the research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston as an economist in September, 2005. Prior to joining the Bank she served as an assistant professor of economics at Florida State University and as a visiting professor of economics at Grinnell College.

Burke’s research concerns the impact of social influences on individual choices and market outcomes. She has published papers explaining the emergence of social norms in contracting, the influence of prominent surgeons in the diffusion of coronary stents, and the role of social norms in the rise of obesity in the United States. Among other research projects, she is currently working on papers that aim, respectively, to explain disparities in obesity by race and gender, and to measure the influence of peers versus teachers on academic achievement. Her research has been published in several scholarly journals, including American Economic Review, Journal of Monetary Economics, and Economic Inquiry. Burke holds a B.A. in mathematics from Brown University, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from Johns Hopkins University.

Education

Ph.D., Economics, The Johns Hopkins University, 1998

M.A., Economics, The Johns Hopkins University, 1994

B.A., Mathematics, magna cum laude, Brown University, 1988

Work experience

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Senior Economist, 2007-
Economist, 2005-2006

 

Florida State University

Assistant Professor of Economics, 1998-2005

 

Grinnell College

Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics, 2002-2003

 

Johns Hopkins University

Research Assistant, 1996-1997
Instructor, 1993-1994
Teaching Assistant, 1992-1994

 

National Cathedral School

Mathematics Instructor, 1988-1991

Publications

Refereed journal articles

"Social Dynamics of Obesity," with Frank Heiland, Economic Inquiry, 45(3), July 2007: 571-591.

"The Diffusion of a Medical Innovation: Is Success in the Stars?" with Gary Fournier and Kislaya Prasad. Southern Economic Journal, 73(3) January 2007: 588-603.

"The Emergence of Local Norms in Networks," with Gary Fournier and Kislaya Prasad. Complexity, 11(5) May/June 2006: 65-83.

“An Evolutionary Model of Debt,” with Kislaya Prasad. Journal of Monetary Economics 49(7) October 2002: 1407-1438.

“Competition and Custom in Economic Contracts: A Case Study of Illinois Agriculture,” with H. Peyton Young. American Economic Review 91(3) June 2001: 559-573.

Books and book chapters

“Social Multipliers,” (forthcoming 2007) in S. Durlauf and L. Blume, eds. The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, Second Edition. London: Palgrave-Macmillan, Ltd.

“The Strength of Social Interactions and Obesity Among Women,” with Frank Heiland, in F. Billari, T. Fent, A. Prskawetz, and J. Scheffran, eds., Agent-Based Computational Modelling. Heidelberg: Physica Verlag (2006).

Working papers and other unpublished papers

"Classroom Peer Effects and Student Achievement," with Tim R. Sass. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Working Papers Series, paper no. 08-5, 2008.

"Race, Obesity, and the Puzzle of Gender Specificity," with Frank Heiland. Florida State University working paper.

“Social Dynamics of Obesity,” with Frank Heiland, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Public Policy Discussion Papers Series, paper no. 06-5 (2006).

“Physician Social Networks and Geographical Variation in Medical Care,” with Gary Fournier and Kislaya Prasad. The Brookings Institution Center for Social and Economic Dynamics working paper #33.

“Contracts with Social Multipliers,” with Kislaya Prasad. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Working Papers Series, paper no. 05-17, 2005.

"Racial Disparities in Obesity Among Women: Biology, Social Norms, and the Puzzle of Gender Specificity, with Frank Heiland. Florida State University working paper.

“Classroom Peer Effects and Student Achievement ” with Tim Sass. working paper, Florida State University.

On the Distributional Effects of Contractual Norms: The Case of Cropshare Contracts.” Revise and resubmit at Journal of Institutional Economics. Available on request from the author.