Deb DeGraff received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan in 1989. Before coming to ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ in 1991 she spent two years at the International Labour Office in Geneva, Switzerland working with a program on population and development issues in Africa, and held a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Carolina Population Center, the University of North Carolina. DeGraff was awarded ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾'s Karofsky prize for teaching excellence among untenured faculty in 1993/94 and served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2000/01 through 2003/04.
DeGraff's primary research interests are in the areas of applied demographic and labor economics in the context of developing countries. Much of her work focuses on the application of microeconomics to household decisions regarding children's work and schooling, women's labor force participation, fertility and the use of contraception. She has conducted research on these issues in Bangladesh, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Brazil and Ecuador. More recently, she has developed additional research interests focusing on issues pertaining to women's employment in the United States. Her current work focuses on child labor in Brazil, the economic position of the elderly in Mexico, and the effects of changing economic structures on families in China.
Recent publications of her research include "Children's Work and Mothers' Work -- What is the Connection?" (with Deborah Levison) in World Development, "Old-Age Wealth in Mexico: The Role of Reproductive, Human Capital, and Employment Decisions" (with Rebeca Wong) in Research on Aging, "Tackling the Endogeneity of Fertility in the Study of Women's Employment in Developing Countries: Alternative Estimation Strategies Using Data from Brazil" (with Rachel Connelly, Deborah Levison and Brian McCall) in Feminist Economics, "Young Women's Employment in Sri Lanka: The Role of Marriage and Socioeconomic Status" (with Anju Malhotra) in Sri Lankan Journal of Population Studies, "" (with Richard Bilsborrow) in , "The Future of Jobs in the Hosiery Industry" (with Rachel Connelly and Rachel Willis) in Low-Wage America: How Employers are Reshaping Opportunity in the Workplace, "If you build it, they will come: parental use of on-site child care centers" (with Rachel Connelly and Rachel Willis) in , "Women's Employment Status and Hours Employed in Urban Brazil: Does Husbands' Presence Matter?" (with Rachel Connelly and Deborah Levison) (abstract ») in Labour: , and Kids at Work: The Value of Employer-Sponsored On-Site Child Care (with Rachel Connelly and Rachel Willis)
Her research has been supported by grants from the International Labour Office, the National Institute on Aging, the National Science Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the United States Agency for International Development, and the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
In addition to courses on economic theory and statistics, DeGraff teaches courses on the economics of population issues and development economics.
DeGraff's primary research interests are in the areas of applied demographic and labor economics in the context of developing countries. Much of her work focuses on the application of microeconomics to household decisions regarding children's work and schooling, women's labor force participation, fertility and the use of contraception. She has conducted research on these issues in Bangladesh, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Brazil and Ecuador. More recently, she has developed additional research interests focusing on issues pertaining to women's employment in the United States. Her current work focuses on child labor in Brazil, the economic position of the elderly in Mexico, and the effects of changing economic structures on families in China.