Economics Department Welcomes New Assistant Professor

Shelton’s research is based on the political economy of fiscal policy.

“By using panel datasets that cover multiple years and countries, I investigate how a country’s political institutions, economic institutions, and demographic factors combine to affect patterns of public expenditure and, ultimately, macroeconomic performance,” Shelton explains.

Shelton has written three papers based on tests of theories, which are under review for publication. Topics include political business cycles, supply and demand of public goods, and variation in government spending patterns. He will present his work at a conference this month in Ireland.

As a result of his studies, Shelton has learned that:

The former Jaedicke Scholar received his Ph.D in political economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Afterwards, he spent one year teaching courses on game theory, economic growth and political institutions at the Stanford International Policy Studies Program.

He came to Wesleyan in July seeking an environment with a balance between teaching and research and the opportunity to work with bright and eager-to-learn students.

“Wesleyan rewards faculty both for teaching and advising undergraduates and for doing top quality research,” Shelton says. “Students and colleagues expect that both will be done in a diligent, competent, and inspired manner. The university and Economics Department seem to provide the resources to enable dedicated pursuit of all aspects of academia. And the students are, by all accounts, outstanding.”

This fall, Shelton is teaching Macroeconomic Analysis and Introduction to Game Theory. In the spring he will teach a course on public economics and fiscal policy.

Shelton grew up in Davis, Calif., with academia in his blood. His father, Robert, is a former professor of physics and is now the president of the University of Arizona. His mother, Adrian, is and has been a senior business/legal analyst for several universities. His brother, Christian, is a professor of computer science at the University of California, Riverside; and his sister, Stephanie, is a medical student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Shelton graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University, with degrees in both physics and economics. As an undergrad, he worked in several labs both at the University of California-Davis and Stanford on a variety of research projects in solid state physics. Despite his love for the explanatory power of physics, Shelton came to appreciate economics more than physics, and pursued his graduate studies in economics.