I am an assistant professor of Economics at the Naval Postgraduate School in the Defense Resources Management Institute. I research topics that lie at the intersection of economics, political science, and history.

After receiving my Ph.D. in Economics from Georgia State University in 2014, I worked for four years as a research economist in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service and published papers on China’s agricultural sector and trade issues.

My interest in China began with my year-long study abroad in Sichuan province in 2002. I continue to maintain intermediate-level fluency in Mandarin and to keep abreast of Chinese current events and new research into China’s history.

HiCN Working Papers Series

266

Resistance is Futile? Institutional and Geographic Factors in China’s Great Leap Famine

Elizabeth Gooch, 

I present evidence that China’s state capacity was an important determinant of famine mortality during China’s Great Famine (1959-61). I hypothesize that variation arising from […]