Ellen D. Russell

My current research focuses on the formation of economic expectations and the policy consequences of these expectations. I am interested in economic argumentation (academic studies, policy papers, news media reports etc.) and its influence on expectations about the feasibility and desirability of economic alternatives. My current SSHRC Insight Grant research considers the impact of the pandemic on economic arguments regarding both inflation and economic marginalization.

My previous research has investigated the economic rationales employed to justify austerity programs, labour market policies and financial regulation.

• SSHRC Insight Grant  "’Never let a serious crisis go to waste’: News Media, Economic Analysisand Policies to Combat Economic Marginalization in Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic” (2022-)
• SSHRC Insight Development Grant “ What do workers deserve?” (2015-)
• Member of the SSHRC partnership Development Grant “Austerity and its Alternatives”. (2016-)
• Research Resident, Banff Research in Culture Program, Banff Centre (2015).
• Former senior economist, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (2003-2007) and coordinator of the Centre’s Alternative Federal Budget.
• Budget Forecaster commissioned by House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance (2005).

I have research assistantships opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students interested in economic argumentation and discourse analysis.

I am willing to supervise graduate students in the areas of economic policy, globalization, economic and business journalism and critical journalism studies.

• "Keynesian Expectations, Epistemic Authority and Pluralism in Economics: Placebo Effects in Normal and Abnormal Times" Cambridge Journal of Economics. (forthcoming)

• "Legitimating Worker Dis/entitlement: Editorial Depictions of Canadian Postal Workers’ Wage Struggles” Canadian Journal of Communication 45, no. 4:567-587, 2020. (with Brittany Bonnis)

• “Austerity and the Eclipse of Economic Alternatives: The Theoretical Terrain of Neoliberal Economic Crisis Narratives.” In Discourse Analysis and Austerity, edited by Power, Kate and Tanweer Ali. Routledge Press, 2019.
• “Resisting Divide and Conquer: Worker/Environmental Alliances and the Problem of Economic Growth.” Capitalism Nature Socialism 29, no. 4: 109-128, 2018. 
  
• “Framing the Economic Case for Austerity: The “Expansionary Fiscal Contraction Hypothesis.” In Austerity: The Lived Experience, edited by Stephen McBride and Bryan Evans, 97-119. University of Toronto Press, 2017.
  
  
• “Why the Rising Tide Doesn`t Lift all Boats: Wages and Bargaining Power in Neoliberal Canada.” Studies in Political Economy 97, no. 1:37-55. 2016 (with Mathieu Dufour)
  
  
• “Why Isn’t Productivity More Popular? A Bargaining Power Approach to the Pay/Productivity Linkage in Canada.” International Productivity Monitor, no. 28 (Spring ): 47- 62. 2015 (With Mathieu Dufour)
• New Deal Banking Reforms and Keynesian Welfare State Capitalism. London: New York: Routledge Press. (2007)

• Russell, Ellen and Mathieu Dufour “On Inequality, Wages and Bargaining Power Matter.” Labour Day Guest Blog, Broadbent Institute. (2015)
• Russell, Ellen. (2016. “Businesses can put “Dead Money” to use Fighting Climate Change.” This Magazine, September/October.  (2016)
• Russell, Ellen and Mathieu Dufour. 2015. “Are you Voting for Policies that Hurt You? Neoliberal Policies and your Paycheque.” Rabble, (August 11, 2015)
• Russell, Ellen.  “Should Canadians Worry about a Banking Crisis?” Toronto Star.  (June 23, 2012)