Ken Roberts
Professor of Economics
Areas of expertise
Agrarian change in developing countries, internal and international migration, financial marketsCourses Taught Regularly (click on course for recent syllabus)
The Economy of China
Education
PhD,University of Wisconsin at Madison 0
MBA,Wharton School of Finance, University of Pennsylvania 0
BBA with Honors,The University of Texas at Austin 0
Positions
Hugh Roy and Lillie Cullen Chair in Economics
Southwestern University
May 01, 1996 - present
Research
My research is on agrarian change and its effect on employment, livelihood, and mobility of rural people. I spent three years in Mexico studying the effect of the Green Revolution on peasants in the state of Guanajuato. Then I worked for the Institute of Latin American Studies at UT-Austin studying Mexican migration to the United States, and have continued to do research in that field. Since the mid-1990s I have studied Chinese rural-to-urban migration, the largest migration in human history. My most recent research topic is on rural change in the Hill Country of central Texas.
Publications
(See vita for coauthors)
"Migration and Agrarian Change" Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration, Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming 2012.
"The Role of Children in the Migration Decisions of Rural Chinese Women" Journal of Contemporary China, forthcoming.
"The Settlement of Rural Migrants in Urban China - Some of China's Migrants are not Floating Anymore" Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies 9:3, 2011
"The Impact of Circular Migration on the Social Position of Women in Rural China" Feminist Economics 16:1, 2010.
"The Floating Population of Shanghai in the mid-1990s" Asia and Pacific Migration Journal 8:4, 1999.
"Technology Transfer in the Mexican Bajío: Seeds, Sorghum, and Socioeconomic Change," in Ina Rosenthal-Urey (ed.) Regional Impacts of U.S.-Mexican Relations. La Jolla, California: Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California at San Diego, 1986
Specific subjects or issues you can knowledgeably discuss:
population issues in China
Chinese economic development more generally
I am willing to talk to the media: yes
I am willing to talk to community groups about my area of expertise: no
Can you do interviews in Spanish? yes
Other languages you are fluent in:
Experience with the news media (especially electronic media):
Contact Details:
(512) 863-1993(office)
Office: Mood-Bridwell 334
robertsk@southwestern.edu
