Heather Munro O’Neill
Heather O’Neill, Emeritus Professor of Economics, retired June, 2021. She introduced quantitative analysis to real world scenarios to show students how to use metrics in numerous situations. Though trained as a theoretical open economy macroeconomist, she quickly re-engineered her skill set to teach applied microeconomics courses while at Ursinus. Her professional publications span varied topics - secondary school and higher education policies, international trade, medical malpractice reform, pharmaceutical R&D, and baseball - all of which incorporate applied econometric techniques. .
While at Ursinus O’Neill received a A Mellon Grant which enabled her to publish several papers on the role of sports in liberal arts settings, created a sports economics course, and mentored several honors students interested in sports economics. She was a regular attendee of the Society for the Advancement of Baseball Research (SABR) conference, her poster presentations at SABR earned awards in 2013 and 2015 and led to published research in 2014.
As business and society become more driven by data analysis, she was committed to learning new material to share with her students; she obtained two certificates in Data Analytics from Coursera.
Department
Degrees
- B.A., University of Vermont
- M.A., Georgetown University
- Ph.D., Georgetown University
Teaching
Principles of Microeconomics and Macroeconomics
Economics of Sports
Intermediate Microeconomics
Econometrics
Research Interests
- Economics of Education
- Economics of Sports
- Health Economics
Recent Work
“Boom & Bust: The Perils of Guaranteed Long Term Contracts Evidence from OPS100 Performance Over the Contract Cycle”, Presented at SABR, Chicago, 2015.
“Do Hitters Boost Their Performance During Their Contract Years?
Evidence from the 2006-2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement’s Years Says ‘Yes’” forthcoming in Baseball Research Journal Fall 2014.
“Do Major League Baseball Hitters Engage in Opportunistic Behavior?” International Advances in Economic Research, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 215-232, August 2013.
“The Impact of Honor Codes and Perceptions of Cheating on Academic
Cheating Behaviors, Especially for MBA Bound Undergraduates,” co-authored with Christian Pfeiffer, Accounting Education: An International Journal, Vol. 0, Issue 0, pp. 1-15, July 2011.
“Do Major League Hitters Come Up Big in Their Contract Year?”, co-authored with Matthew J. Hummel, Virginia Economic Journal, Vol. 16, pp. 13-25, 2011.
“Gender-Separate Education: The Effects on Student Achievement &
Self-Esteem on Economically Disadvantaged Public Middle School Students in Philadelphia,” co-authored with Allison Guerin, Pennsylvania Economic Review, Volume 17, Numbers 1&2, Fall 2010, pp 1-15.
“The Impact of Honor Codes on Academic Cheating Within Liberal Arts Colleges,” co-authored with Christian Pfeiffer, Pennsylvania Economics Association Proceedings, Summer 2008.
“The Effects of Malpractice Tort Reform on Defensive Medicine,” co-authored with Katherine D. Hennesey, Virginia Economic Journal, Vol. 10, 2005.
“The Effects of Price Regulation on Pharmaceutical R&D and Innovation,” co-authored with Clarissa Crain, Pennsylvania Economics Association Proceedings, Summer 2005.
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