Rate My Professor Samia Islam

Dr. Samia Islam is a Professor of Economics in the College of Business and Economics at Boise State University, joining the faculty in August 2004. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from West Virginia University in 2004, with specialties in urban and regional economics and public finance. Earlier, she earned a Master of Social Science (MSS) and a Bachelor of Social Science (BSS) in Economics from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Prior to her graduate studies in the U.S., Dr. Islam served as a research assistant at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) and the Power and Participation Research Center (PPRC) in Dhaka.

Dr. Islam's research focuses on urban economic issues, including entrepreneurship, transportation modeling, traffic safety, economic policy analysis, regional economies, regional development, and public finance. Her publications include “Declining Unionization and the Despair of the Working Class” co-authored with Kelly Chen in the Journal of Law and Economics (2022), “Testing for Spatial Equilibrium Using Happiness Data” with Frank Goetzke in the Journal of Regional Science (2016), “Modeling networks of urban social ecological systems: opportunities and challenges for resilience research” with Michail Fragkias and Christian Sprague in the International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development (2017), and “Beyond the Veil: The Influence of Islam on Female Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh” with John C. McIntosh (2010). She has earned several awards, such as the COBE Best Research Poster Awards at Boise State University’s Undergraduate Research Conferences in 2008, 2009, and 2010, the Dadisman Fellowship (2002-2004), and the Kaiser Best Doctoral Student Award (2003). Dr. Islam mentors students through the McNair Scholars Program, serves on Boise city and Treasure Valley urban planning committees, and contributes socio-economic commentaries to The Daily Star and The New Age.