New England Regional Economic Conditions: The Way Forward....

Mary Burke joined the research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston as an economist in September, 2005. Prior to joining the Bank she served as an assistant professor of economics at Florida State University and as a visiting professor of economics at Grinnell College.

Burke’s research concerns the impact of social influences on individual choices and market outcomes. She has published papers explaining the emergence of social norms in contracting, the influence of prominent surgeons in the diffusion of coronary stents, and the role of social norms in the rise of obesity in the United States. Among other research projects, she is currently working on papers that aim, respectively, to explain disparities in obesity by race and gender, and to measure the influence of peers versus teachers on academic achievement. Her research has been published in several scholarly journals, including American Economic Review, Journal of Monetary Economics, and Economic Inquiry. Burke holds a B.A. in mathematics from Brown University, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from Johns Hopkins University.