School of Public Policy Economic Seminar Series
The School of Public Policy Economic Seminar Series features a range of events that focus on the integration of economic analysis and policy decisions that directly impact human flourishing in today’s increasingly complex landscape. These academic workshops are led by Dr. Luisa Blanco and Dr. James Prieger, professors of public policy.
Upcoming Events:
An Economist’s View of the White House and Federal Regulatory Cost-Benefit Analysis
March 25, 2026
12:00 PM-1:00 PM PT
The School of Public Policy is proud to host the latest installment of our Economic
Seminar Series, featuring a deep dive into the intersection of high-level governance
and economic scrutiny.
In this session, Donald Kenkel, the Andrew Dickson White Professor at Cornell University’s
Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy, will share an insider’s perspective on the
mechanisms that drive federal decision-making.
After the Spike: Population, Progress, and the Case for People
March 31, 2026
12:00 PM-1:00 PM PT
We are honored to welcome Dean Spears, Associate Professor of Economics at University of Texas at Austin, for a discussion of his provocative book, After the Spike: Population, Progress, and the Case for People.
In this talk, Dr. Spears will discuss his new book After the Spike (with Michael Geruso), which examines the coming era of global depopulation as birth rates fall below replacement levels worldwide. He challenges the idea that fewer people would automatically mean a better planet or greater prosperity, arguing instead that sustained population decline could threaten progress, equity, and human welfare. He will explore why population stabilization—compatible with gender equality and environmental goals—offers a more hopeful path forward.
Series Leadership:
Dr. Luisa Blanco, Professor of Public Policy
Luisa Blanco is an economist specializing in economic development and international economics, with a focus on the Latin American region. Dr. Blanco research interests pertain to the wellbeing of Latin Americans at home and abroad. At Pepperdine's School of Public Policy, Blanco teaches the core course on Macroeconomic Policy and other courses related to the economics specialization, such as Global Economics and Latin American Economic Development.
Blanco is a scholar at UCLA Resource Center for Minority Aging Research-Center for Health Improvement of Minority Elderly (RCMAR-CHIME), a Visiting Senior Scholar at the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank (2017-2018), an Adjunct Researcher at RAND Corporation, and a Research Fellow at Harris Manchester College at Oxford.
Blanco's funded research projects focus on financial behavior and financial planning for retirement among minorities in the United States. She conducted a community based randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of an educational intervention on retirement saving among Hispanics in the Los Angeles area. Blanco also leads the mobile money diary project, which collects data about financial behavior and health among Hispanics in California.
Blanco's research specific to the Latin American region focuses on issues related to economic development and policy-making, such as institutions, democracy, political instability, crime, capital accumulation, capital flows, financial development, inequality, and natural resources.
Blanco's work has been published in journals such as the World Development, Journal of Development Studies, Oxford Development Studies, Southern Economic Journal, Resources Policy, Energy Economics, Latin American Research Review, among others.
Dr. James Prieger, Professor of Public Policy
James E. Prieger is an economist specializing in regulatory economics, industrial organization, and applied econometrics. Previously, he was an assistant professor of economics at the University of California, Davis. He received his bachelor of arts degree from Yale University and his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.
Prieger has written for scholarly journals on a diverse array of policy topics such as the impact of telecommunications regulation on innovation; broadband deployment and the digital divide; the impact of the broadband provisions of ARRA (the 2009 stimulus bill); whether cell phone use causes traffic accidents; the impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act on retail firms; applications barriers to entry in network markets; entrepreneurship, R&D, and economic growth; the determinants of civic engagement; minority entrepreneurship; and tobacco taxes and illicit markets.
Prieger currently serves as a Senior Fellow for the Reason Foundation and participates as an academic advisory board member for The Free State Foundation. Prieger sits on the editorial boards of Applied Economics Quarterly and the International Journal of Business Environment, and his own research has been published in Review of Economics and Statistics, Economic Inquiry, Journal of Applied Econometrics, Journal of Regulatory Economics, and elsewhere. Prieger spent a year in 2008-2009 as Senior Economist with the Federal Communications Commission, advising on broadband and telecom merger policy. He has consulted for major telecommunications and other companies on regulatory issues and presented at panels convened by the FCC.
Past Events:
| Date | Event Title | Speaker | Event Media |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2/23/26 | Rightsizing Regulations to Foster Innovation and a Healthy Business Environment: Insights from Elite Executives | Nelson Granados, Professor of Information Systems and Technology Management at the Graziadio Business School and Brian Mulligan, CEO at Brooknol Advisors |
https://events.pepperdine.edu/event/f2941257-c320-4fcd-92cc-80a81de37f02/overview |
| 2/19/2026 | Is Vaping a Help or Hindrance to Quitting Smoking and Reducing Health Disparities? | James Prieger, Professor of Public Policy, School of Public Policy |
https://events.pepperdine.edu/event/8d191ffc-9af0-4aca-9acf-4abaf31c56cf/overview |
| 2/12/2026 | How We Lost the California Dream, and How to Get It Back | Lee E. Ohanian, professor of economics, and director of the Ettinger Family Program in macroeconomic research at the University of California, Los Angeles | |
| 3/13/2025 | A Quick Tour Around the World: Research on Global Poverty | Dr. Angelino Viceisza, professor of Economics and Research, director of the Center for Black Entrepreneurship Spelman College |
|
| 2/20/2025 | The Demographic Future of Humanity: Some Economic Implications | Jesús Fernández-Villaverde, Howard Marks Presidential Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania | https://publicpolicy.pepperdine.edu/events/2025/demographic-future-of-humanity.htm |