Chris Cotton
Professor
Jarislowsky-Deutsch Chair in Economic and Financial Policy
Director, John Deutsch Institute
Education
Ph.D. & M.A., Cornell University; B.A., honors, Michigan State University
Organization
Queen's University
Office
Dunning Hall 230
Email
cc159@queensu.ca
Personal URL
http://www.christophercotton.ca/
Research Interests
Information Economics
Public Economics
Education & Human Capital
Experimental economics
Public health
Non-Market Strategy
Evidence Use in Organizations & Policymaking

View Dr. Cotton's CV

Christopher Cotton is a Professor of Economics at Queen's University where he holds the Jarislowsky-Deutsch Chair in Economic & Financial Policy. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the Department of Economics and is a faculty member for the CPIA professional program and the MPA and PMPA programs within the Queen's School of Policy Studies, He is also a cross-appointed member of the Translational Medicine Graduate Faculty in the Queen's School of Medicine, where he helps supervise students working at the intersection of health and economics.

Prof. Cotton focuses on applying rigorous research methods from economics to gain insights into pressing public policy questions. He has also worked extensively on the evaluation of education and health policies and international development projects, and is a leading international expert on on the impact of public health crises (e.g., COVID-19) and related policies on businesses and the economy; program and policy evaluation; and the impact of science and evidence on funding, policy- and decision-making. His research has been published in top scientific journals, such as the American Economic Review, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Labor Economics, and Management Science, and he has included seminal papers on several topics. 

Much of Prof. Cotton's work encourages the incorporation of better evidence into policy decisions. He serves as the Director of the John Deutsch Institute for the Study of Economic Policy (JDI). He is also a member of the board of directors and research advisor at Limestone Analytics, through which he regularly advises and leads evaluations on behalf of governments and NGOs.

He is also one of the lead developers behind the new CPIA program at Queen’s, which teaches professionals across firms, governments, and organizations how to effectively incorporate evidence and evaluation into the design, financing, and assessment of their projects. He has been involved with the design and evaluation of several major development projects involving nutrition and education, including work for the US and UK governments around the world. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Prof. Cotton's research and policy efforts worked to better understand the economic and social costs of the pandemic. He was appointed to the Royal Society of Canada Covid-19 working group on Economic Recovery and Global Canada's Covid Strategic Choices Group. He was also the economic modeling lead on a major Canada Digital Technology Supercluster grant, which brought together economic and epidemiological models to build capacity for evaluating future outbreaks and pandemics. He was the co-lead for a major grant by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to establish the One Society Network of emerging infectious disease modeling researchers across Canada working to study the broader impacts of COVID-19 on the economy and society and served as co-Director of the OSN from 2021 through 2024.  

His research has received grant funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Tri-Council New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF), Canada's Digital Technology Supercluster, the Spencer Foundation, and others. Prof. Cotton is also an enthusiastic teacher and adviser. He advises many Ph.D. and M.A. students and won the department's award for undergraduate teaching.  

Selected Publications

Journal Articles:

  • C. Cotton, B. Hickman, J. List, J. Price, and S. Roy (2025). Disentangling Motivation and Study Productivity as Drivers of Adolescent Human Capital Formation: Evidence from a Field Experiment and Structural Analysis, Journal of Political Economy, ACCEPTED

  • C. Cotton, M. LaBarge, and A. Nordstrom (2025). Canadian Public Health Experiences with COVID-19 and a New Framework for Assessing Evidence in Emergencies. Frontiers in Public Health, ACCEPTED

  • C. Cotton, A. Alam, S. Tosta, T. G. Buchman, and D. Maslove (2025). Effect of Monetary Incentives on Peer Review Acceptance and Completion: A Quasi-Randomized Intervention Trial, Critical Care Medicine (high-impact medical journal)

  • A. Nordstrom and C. Cotton (2025), The Impact of a Severe Drought on Education: More Schooling But Not More Learning, American Educational Research Journal (leading education journal)

  • L. Corazzini, C. Cotton, E. Longo, and T. Reggiani (2024), Coordinated selection of collection action: Wealth-interest bias and inequality, Journal of Public Economics

  • C. Cotton, A. Nordstrom, J. Nanowski, and E. Richter (2024), Can Discussions About Girls Education Improve Academic Outcomes? Evidence from a Randomized Development Intervention, World Bank Economic Review

  • C. Cotton, B. Hickman and J. Price (2022), Affirmative action and human capital investment: Evidence from a large contest experiment, Journal of Labor Economics

  • C. Cotton, B. Crowley, B. Kashi, H. Lloyd-Ellis, and F. Tremblay (2021), Quantifying the economic impacts of COVID-19 policy responses in (almost) real time, Canadian Journal of Economics

  • Z. Kurzawa, C. Cotton, N. Mazurkewich, A. Verney, J. Busch-Hallen, and B. Kashi (2021), Training healthcare workers increases IFA use and adherence: Evidence and cost-effectiveness analysis from Bangladesh, Maternal and Child Nutrition

  • M. Agranov, C. Cotton and C. Tergiman (2020), Persistence of Power: Repeated multilateral bargaining with endogenous agenda setting authority, Journal of Public Economics (lead article)

  • L. Corazzini, C. Cotton and T. Reggiani (2020), Delegation and coordination with multiple threshold public goods: experimental evidence, Experimental Economics

  • C. Cotton, F. McIntyre, A. Nordstrom and J. Price (2019), Correcting for bias in hot-hand analysis: An application to youth golf,  Journal of Economic Psychology

  • C. Cotton and C. Li (2018), Clueless Politicians: On Policymaker Incentives for Information Acquisition in a Model of Lobbying, Journal of Law, Economics & Organizations

  • R. Boleslavsky and C. Cotton (2018), Limited capacity in project selection: Competition through evidence production, Economic Theory

  • R. Boleslavsky, C. Cotton and H. Gurnani (2017), Demonstrations and price competition in new product release, Management Science

  • C. Cotton and A. Dellis (2016), "Informational lobbying and agenda distortion", Journal of Law, Economics & Organizations

  • C. Cotton (2016), Competing for attention: Lobbying time-constrained politicians, Journal of Public Economic Theory

  • C. Cotton and C. Li (2015), Profiling, screening and criminal recruitment, Journal of Public Economic Theory

  • L. Corazzini, C. Cotton and P. Valbonesi (2015), Donor coordination in project funding: Evidence from a threshold public goods experiment, Journal of Public Economics

  • R. Boleslavsky and C. Cotton (2015), Grading standards and education quality, American Economic Journal: Microeconomics

  • R. Boleslavsky and C. Cotton (2015), Information and extremism in elections, American Economic Journal: Microeconomics

  • C. Cotton, C. Li, F. McIntyre and J. Price (2015), Which explanations for gender differences in competition are consistent with a simple theoretical model?, Journal of Behavioral & Experimental Economics

  • S. Campos, C. Cotton and C. Li (2015), Deterrence effects under Twombly: On the costs of increasing pleading standards in litigation, International Review of Law and Economics

  • C. Cotton (2013), Submission fees and response times in academic publishing, American Economic Review

  • C. Cotton, F. McIntyre and J. Price (2013), Gender differences in repeated competition: Evidence from school math contests, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization

  • C. Cotton (2012), Pay to play politics: Informational lobbying and contribution limits when money buys access, Journal of Public Economics

  • C. Cotton and C. Liu (2011), 100 horsemen and the empty city: A game theoretic exploration of deception in Chinese military legend, Journal of Peace Research (leading peace science journal)

  • C. Cotton (2009), Should we tax or cap political contributions? A lobbying model with policy favors and access, Journal of Public Economics (lead article)

  • C. Cotton (2009), Multiple bidding in auctions as bidders become confident of their private valuations, Economics Letters

Books: 

  • C. Cotton, ed., Lasting Disruption: Health, Economic, and Social Impacts of COVID-19 on Canada. The State of the Federation book series, McGill-Queen's University Press, 2025 (forthcoming).  

Chapters and other reviewed articles: 

  • D. Teeter and C. Cotton (2025). Breaking Down Canada’s Internal Trade Barriers. JDI Policy Insight, John Deutsch Institute for the Study of Economic Policy.

  • C. Cotton (2025), The Broad Impacts of COVID-19 in Canada, Lasting Disruption: Health, Economic, and Social Impacts of COVID-19 in Canada, Chapter 1, McGill-Queen’s University Press, forthcoming.

  • C. Cotton (2025), Assessing the Impacts of COVID-19 on Canadian Economy and Businesses, Lasting Disruption: Health, Economic, and Social Impacts of COVID-19 in Canada, Chapter 2, McGill-Queen’s University Press, forthcoming.

  • N. Afodjo, C. Cotton, M. Jones, and L. Scholle-Cotton (2025), The Economics of COVID-19 and Educational Attainment in Canada, in Lasting Disruption: Health, Economic, and Social Impacts of COVID-19 in Canada, Chapter 6, McGill-Queen’s University Press, forthcoming.

  • B. Mutic and C. Cotton (2025), COVID-19's Other Impacts: Technology, Homelessness, Mental Health, and Addiction, in Lasting Disruption: Health, Economic, and Social Impacts of COVID-19 in Canada, Chapter 13, McGill-Queen’s University Press, forthcoming.

  • W. L. Adamowicz, R. Boadway, D. Breznitz, C. S. Cotton, S. Elgie, E. Forget, R. Gold, E. Jones, F. Lang, N. de Marcellis-Warin, C. McCabe, S. Peacock, and L. Tedds (2025), Renewing the Social Contract and Fostering Innovation to Build a Stronger Post-COVID Economy, in Lasting Disruption: Health, Economic, and Social Impacts of COVID-19 in Canada, Chapter 14, McGill-Queen’s University Press, forthcoming.

  • M. A. Lewis, P. Brown, C. Colijn, C. Cotton, L. Cowen, T. Day, R. Deardon, D. J. D. Earn, D. Haskell, J. Heffernan, P. Leighton, K. Murty, S. Otto, E. Rafferty, C. Hughes Tuohy, J. Wu, H. Zhu (2025), Charting a Future for Emerging Infectious Disease Modelling in Canada: A Call to Maintain Capacity, in Lasting Disruption: Health, Economic, and Social Impacts of COVID-19 in Canada, Chapter 15, McGill-Queen’s University Press, forthcoming.

  • C. McCabe, V. Adamowicz, R. Boadway, D. Breznitz, N. de Marcellis-Warin, S. Elgie, E. Forget, R. Gold, E. Jones, F. Lange, S. Peacock, and L. Tedds (2020), Renewing the social contract: Economic recovery in Canada from COVID-19, An RSC Policy Briefing, Royal Society of Canada COVID-19 Task Force

  • C. Cotton, B. Kashi, J. MacKinnon, J. Makuwira, A. Nordstrom, L. Wallace, and B. Wong, Cost-Benefit Analysis of Interventions to Improve Primary Education Quality in Malawi, The Malawi Priorities Project, Copenhagen Consensus Center, 2020

    C. Cotton, N. Kanyongolo, B. Kashi, J. MacKinnon, A. Nordstrom, L. Wallace, and B. Wong, Cost-Benefit Analysis of Interventions to Decrease Secondary Education Dropout Rates in Malawi, The Malawi Priorities Project, Copenhagen Consensus Center, 2020
     

Select Public Reports and Expert Opinions

Expert Witness & Litigation

  • C. Cotton (2025). Expert report on the impact of government policy on construction materials prices, Dentons Canada LLC. 

  • C. Cotton (2024). Expert opinion on COVID-19 pandemic and policy impacts on Alberta businesses, Alberta Justice and the Government of Alberta.

  • C. Cotton (2018). Opinion on Campaign Finance Policy, Ministry of Attorney General, Government of British Columbia. 

  • J. LeBaron, V. Wrotslavsky, and C. Cotton (2001). Effects on the City of Pontiac of the Opening of Ford Field, Detroit Lions, Inc., through BBK, Ltd.

Impact Evaluations -

  • C. Cotton, A. Nordstrom, T. Pracek, and Z. Robb (2024). The Impacts and Cost-Effectiveness of THRIVE, internal report for World Vision US.

  • C. Cotton, A. Nordstrom, Z. Robb, R. Sampson, S. Veenstra, and L. Wallace (2021). IGATE-T Community Based Education Study in Zimbabwe, internal report for World Vision UK.

  • H. Britt, C. Cotton, J. MacKinnon, A. Nordstrom, Z. Robb, S. Veenstra, and L. Wallace (2021). Endline Evaluation of the IGATE-T Girls' Education Challenge project in Zimbabwe,  UK Government (FCDO).

  • C. Brady, C. Cotton, B. Crowley, S. Davis, C. Farquharson, B. Kashi, H. Lloyd-Ellis, and F. Tremblay (2020). Malawi in 2025: Emerging from Crisis? A Scenario Planning and Economic Analysis of Malawi’s Economy, Malawi National Planning Commission.

  • C. Cotton, A. Nordstrom, and S. Davis (2020). Bicycle Education Empowerment Program Evaluation, World Vision UK.

  • C. Cotton, S. Davis, and A. Nordstrom (2019). Midline Evaluation of the IGATE-T Girls' Education Challenge project in Zimbabwe, UK Government (DFID).

  • C. Cotton, Z. Kurzawa and F. Tremblay (2019), Impact Evaluation of the Youth Ready project in El Salvador and Honduras, World Vision Canada. 

  • C. Cotton, A. Nordstrom, J. Mackinnon, and B. Kashi (2018). Baseline Evaluation of the IGATE-T Girls' Education Challenge project in Zimbabwe, UK Government (DFID).

  • Z. Kurzawa, C. Cotton, and N. Mazurkewic (2018). Evaluation of NI’s prenatal supplement adherence program in Bangladesh, Nutrition International. 

  • C. Cotton, B. Kashi, and J. Nanowski (2017). Evaluation of the IGATE girls empowerment program in rural Zimbabwe, World Vision Canada

Strategic Assessments & Feasibility Studies -

  • S. Afra and C. Cotton (2024). Cost-Benefit Assessment of the Learning Roots Early Childhood Development Program Model. World Vision.

  • M. Lewis, … C.Cotton, et al. (2023). Charting a Future for Emerging Infectious Disease Modelling in Canada, white paper by the NSERC Emerging Infectious Disease Modeling Consortium. 

  • C. Cotton (2023). Approaches to the cost-benefit analysis of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programs, internal report for U.S. Government, Millennium Challenge Corporation.

  • R. Bahn, C. Cotton, B. Kashi, and N. Muntasir (2023). Study of evidence use in decision-making at World Vision Canada, internal report for World Vision.

  • Z. Robb, F. Tremblay, and C. Cotton (2023). Cost-benefit assessment of Savings for Transformation (S4T) savings group programming, internal report for World Vision.

  • K. Safar and C. Cotton (2023). Cost-benefit assessment of Positive Parenting training program, internal report for World Vision.

  • H. Fox and C. Cotton (2023). Cost-benefit assessment of Unlock Literacy early-grade reading program, internal report for World Vision.

  • S. Carillo, C. Cotton, S. Hamilton, B. Kashi, and Z. Robb (2021). The Return on Healthy School Feeding: Impacts, Considerations, and Design Factors, internal report for the World Health Organization.

  • C. Cotton, J. MacKinnon, A. Nordstrom, Z. Robb, and L. Wallace (2021). Value for Money Analysis of the IGATE-T Girls’ Education Challenge project in Zimbabwe, UK Government (FCDO) and World Vision UK.

  • C. Cotton, B. Crowley, and H. Lloyd-Ellis (2021). The Costs of Alternative Vaccination and Reopening Policies in Alberta, report for the Government of Alberta and the Institute for Health Economics.

  • C. Cotton, B. Crowley, B. Kashi, H. Lloyd-Ellis, and F. Tremblay (2020). Will the Canadian Shield Lockdown Policy Save Jobs in Ontario? Public report for Limestone Analytics and Global Canada COVID Strategic Choices Group.

  • R. Greenhill, … C. Cotton, et al. (2020). Building the Canadian Shield: A New Strategy to Protect Canadians from COVID and from the fight against COVID, A Policy Proposal, public white paper by Global Canada COVID Strategic Choices Group.

  • C. Cotton, B. Crowley, C. Farquharson, H. Lloyd-Ellis, and L. Rawling (2020). Determinants of community economic resilience to COVID-19 in Canada, report for the Eastern Ontario Leadership Council.

  • C. Cotton, S. Davis, B. Kashi, and Z. Kurzawa (2019). Impact Bond Feasibility Study for addressing nutrition and stunting in Lesotho, World Vision International and UNICEF.

  • A. Galvin, B. Kashi, and C. Cotton (2017). Financing Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs): How to Assess Impact, World Vision.

  • P. Anderson, C. Cotton, and S. Watkins (2003). The Public School Academy Funding Gap: Revenue Disparities between Charter Schools and Traditional Public Schools in Michigan, Michigan Chamber of Commerce. 

  • P. Anderson, C. Cotton, and S. Watkins (2003). Fiscal Analysis of Michigan’s Schools, Michigan Chamber of Commerce.

  • P. Anderson, C. Cotton, and S. Watkins (2002). Downtown Redevelopment Market Study, City of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

  • P. Anderson, C. Cotton, and C. LeNet (2002). Workforce Development Study, State of North Carolina, Department of Commerce.

  • P. Anderson, C. Cotton, and C. LeNet (2002). Workforce Development Summit: Recommendations and Analysis, State of North Carolina, Department of Commerce.

  • P. Anderson, I. Clemens, and C. Cotton (2002). Economic Diversification & High-Tech Employment Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County, Michigan.

  • P. Anderson, C. Cotton, and I. Geckil (2001). Funding Inequality of Michigan’s Public Schools, Equity in Education Foundation. (Presented at the U.S. White House.)  

  • P. Anderson and C. Cotton (2001). Failing Schools in Michigan: The Surprising Scale, Choices for Children Foundation. (Presented in testimony to the State of Michigan, Senate Committee on Education.)

  • C. Cotton (2001). City housing and economic distress in Detroit, City of Detroit, Michigan. (Included as part of the City of Detroit’s Renewal Community application to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.)

  • P. Anderson, C. Cotton, and I. Geckel (2001). Fiscal Analysis of the ‘Link Michigan’ Broadband Proposal, Michigan Telecommunications Association.

  • C. Cotton and I. Clemens (2001). Norfolk Redevelopment Housing Market Study. City of Norfolk, Virginia. 

  • Market Feasibility Studies (2001-2003) for various housing development projects across Michigan for the Michigan State Housing Development Authority.