Education
Ph.D., Economics, Middle Tennessee State University
M.A., Economics, Middle Tennessee State University
B.S., Statistics (Applied Emphasis), St. Cloud State University
Dr. Rob Girtz is an applied microeconomist (generally), with a primary specific field of interest in labor economics. He has published several articles investigating the effects of individual-level attributes (such as self-esteem, locus of control, and obesity) on individual-specific outcomes such as wages and educational attainment. He’s published articles in such outlets as the Journal of Labor Research, the Journal of Experimental and Behavioral Economics, and Labour.
He teaches across the economics curriculum at Concordia, including principles of global economics, intermediate microeconomic theory, intermediate macroeconomic theory, and business statistics. He also eventually plans to teach labor economics and history of economic thought. He enjoys the teaching process very much and enjoys helping shape and sharpen the economic and statistical viewpoints of students at Concordia as they venture into being well-rounded liberally educated citizens.
He has been married to Renee since 2011, who is a registered nurse in the Sanford system. They have a daughter, Natalie, who currently attends school in the Moorhead Public School System and enjoys learning the violin, singing, and just generally being a kid.
He enjoys biking, drinking coffee, enjoying a pizza, playing fantasy football (especially in dynasty leagues), playing video games (with recent standing favorites being Slay the Spire and Balatro), and just the general concept of “being dad” to Natalie.
Contact Dr. Girtz if you’d like to talk about the economics major (or minor) and/or get into some empirical economics undergraduate research. He’s always up for learning new topics and econometric techniques, as well as discussing your economic and statistical interests, as they arise.
Dr. Rob Girtz