Prof. Angela Dills

Angela Dills (Ph.D., Boston University), is Professor of Economics and Gimelstob-Landry Distinguished Professor for Regional Economic Development at Western Carolina University. Her research interests are in public economics and labor economics,  with special interests in the economics of education, crime, and health. She has received many awards for her teachng, including the National Council on Economic Education and the Excellence in Research Reward from the WCU College of Business.



What concepts are most difficult for economics students to grasp?

Comparative advantage is frequently a difficult concept for students to grasp. Students typically can figure out how to calculate opportunity cost for a given person or country. But to also change some students' intuition about trade between two people as being exploitative for the weaker person can take more effort. In a related vein, when we discuss supply and demand and market competition, many students enter the course thinking that a producers' goal is to sell more output than their competition; convincing them that the optimal choice is to do the best the producer can (profit maximize) instead of trying to do better than someone else (market share maximize) can go against their existing beliefs.

Are there any books that were important to your development as an economist? 

I love to read but, reflecting on your question, cannot point to a specific book that was important to me in my work as an economist. I enjoy reading pop-economics books (Freakonomics, Naked Economics, and the like), particularly as an instructor, to find better and more interesting ways to explain concepts to those new to economics. One book that really helped me to better understand political discourse was Thomas Sowell's A Conflict of Visions.