Russel Toth

Degree	Ph.D
Area of Interest	Economics
Chair	David Easley
Country of Origin	Canada
Email Address	rdt28@cornell.edu
Campus Address
Personal Website	http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/rdt28/

Russell is a Ph.D. student in the department of Economics at Cornell. His primary interests are in economic theory and development economics, including research on network games, on innovative behavior and the interaction between behavioral anomalies and social institutions in the development setting, and dissertation research on small and medium-sized enterprise in LDCs.

 

As a part of Chris Barrett’s research group, Russell has primarily worked on analysis of data that was collected as part of the USAID GL CRSP Pastoral Risk Management (PARIMA) project. Russell’s work has focused on mobility as a primary explanation for the bifurcation point in “S-shaped” herd accumulation dynamics observed in prior research using the PARIMA data. Work thus far has applied a semiparametric reduced-form econometric approach to attempt to identify a herd size-based threshold in herder mobility, and other determinants of herd mobility and movement. The next step in the research will involve developing and estimating a structural model of herd movement, which could be used for analysis regarding the behavioral response to policy interventions or changing weather patterns, in regards to outcomes such as environmental degradation, ethnic conflict and household welfare.

 

Russell is a dual citizen of Canada and Hungary. He completed a B.A. in Humanities at Roberts Wesleyan College, and an M.S. in Mathematical Economics at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale prior to coming to Cornell. He is married, and outside of school he enjoys ice hockey, gardening and is involved in his local church.

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