Rate My Professor Melissa Boyle

Melissa Boyle serves as Associate Professor and Department Chair of Economics and Accounting at the College of the Holy Cross, a position she has held within the department since joining the faculty in 2005. A distinguished alumna of the institution, she earned her A.B. in 2000 and later obtained her Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2005. Her areas of expertise include public economics and cultural economics, with research interests in health economics and the economics of aging. Boyle teaches courses such as Public Economics, Economics of the Arts, and Microeconomics.

Her publications have appeared in prominent journals including the Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Public Economics, Eastern Economic Journal, Economics Letters, and Journal of Cultural Economics. Select works include “Spousal Labor Market Effects from Government Health Insurance: Evidence from a Veterans Affairs Expansion” with Joanna N. Lahey (Journal of Health Economics, 2016); “The Roundness of Antiquity Valuations from Auction Houses and Sales” with Justin Svec (Eastern Economic Journal, 2022); “Health Insurance and the Labor Supply Decisions of Older Workers: Evidence from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs” with Joanna N. Lahey (Journal of Public Economics, 2010); “The Effect of Ticket Resale Laws on Consumption and Production in Performing Arts Markets” with Lesley Chiou (Eastern Economic Journal, 2012), which ranked 5th among the journal's most downloaded articles; and “Determinants of the Distribution of Congressional Earmarks Across States” with Victor Matheson (Economics Letters, 2009). Boyle has received three Social Security Administration research grants, a Batchelor Summer Faculty Fellowship, and a Hewlett Mellon Grant. On campus, she serves as president of the Holy Cross chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, and as a member of the Presidential Colloquium on Jesuit Liberal Arts at Holy Cross and the Health Professions Advisory Committee. She also serves on the Board of Directors at St. Mary Health Care Center in Worcester.