I became an economist when I realized that economic issues impact so many social issues I care about. But despite the importance of economics, it can be daunting to try to make sense of the business and economic coverage in the newspaper. My goal is to translate economic issues so that public can understand how economics impacts our lives and so that we can engage with important debates about what sorts of economic changes we would like to pursue.

My recent research focuses on wage trends and growing inequality. I’m interested in the interaction of economic, political and cultural factors that have disadvantaged workers in recent decades, particularly as they have impacted worker bargaining power and contributed to stagnating real wages. I have applied this research to the study of austerity programs to examine their economic rationales and their impacts on wages, and to investigate the potential alliances between workers and environmentalists.

My current research investigates how economic discourses interpret economic necessity and possibility in ways that legitimate certain outcomes while rendering other conversations about the economy invisible.

• SSHRC Insight Development Grant “ What do workers deserve?” 2015-2017.
• Member of the SSHRC partnership Development Grant “Austerity and its Alternatives”.
• 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 researching how wages issues are framed in newspaper op eds and editorials.

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

• “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 (2015). “On Inequality, Wages and Bargaining Power Matter.” Labour Day Guest Blog, Broadbent Institute.
• 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. 2012. “Should Canadians Worry about a Banking Crisis?” Toronto Star, June 23, 2012.