Rate My Professor Michelle Vachris

Her research interests encompass economics education, particularly the comparison of online and traditional instruction methods, public choice theory, principal-agent relationships in bureaucracy, and the integration of economic concepts with literature. Key publications include the highly cited article “No significant distance between face-to-face and online instruction: evidence from principles of economics” (Economics of Education Review, 2004, with D. Coates, B.R. Humphreys, and J. Kane), “Teaching principles of economics without ‘chalk and talk’: The experience of CNU online” (The Journal of Economic Education, 1999), “Using illustrations from American novels to teach about labor markets” (The Journal of Economic Education, 2012, with C.E. Bohanon), and “Why democracy does not necessarily produce efficient results” (Journal of Public Finance and Public Choice, 1994, with C.K. Rowley). Vachris co-authored books such as Pride and Profit: The Intersection of Jane Austen and Adam Smith (Lexington Books, 2015, with C.E. Bohanon) and Dystopia and Economics: A Guide to Surviving Everything from the Apocalypse to Zombies (Routledge, 2018, with C.J.R. Acchiardo). She has delivered public lectures, including on economics and literature at Susquehanna University in 2018, contributing to broader discussions on pedagogy and economic thought in popular culture.