APSU professor earns national recognition for economics research

By: Elaina Russell January 17, 2025

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Dr. Elaine Tontoh, an instructor of economics at Austin Peay State University, has been awarded the 2024 Professional Development Grant for Underrepresented Minorities by the American Economic Association (AEA) and Pearson Education.

The $2,000 grant recognizes Tontoh’s research on the “Triple Day Thesis,” a theoretical framework for understanding women’s multifaceted work as mothers and gender differences in workplace participation. Her work may potentially be featured in future Pearson textbooks and online resources, further extending its impact on economics education.

“I am honored to receive this year’s award and even more so by the potential of this work in enhancing the well-being of women and mothers and shaping more inclusive workplace practices,” Tontoh said.

Tontoh received formal recognition during the AEA's annual meeting, held in conjunction with the Allied Social Science Associations (ASSA) in San Francisco, California, in January.

The event brought together colleagues from 66 organizations in the social sciences, many of whom applied for the competitive grant. Tontoh's winning essay demonstrated how her research connects with key economic principles of scarcity and opportunity cost.

Her work emphasizes time as a scarce and unequal economic resource for mothers, highlighting the high opportunity costs they often face when making choices in balancing workloads between three key areas: reproductive labor, wage labor, and self-reproductive labor.

Tontoh's Triple Day Thesis provides a model for further examining the tensions between those three areas of work, contributing a fresh economic and capability perspective on complex challenges working mothers face while offering potential solutions to inform policy and decision-makers in cultivating a more equitable workforce.

Her work also exemplifies the growing number of intellectual contributions made by APSU faculty in addressing critical socioeconomic issues and contributions to the broader academic community.

“Dr. Tontoh’s research offers new depth to traditional economic models,” said Dr. Mickey Hepner, dean of the College of Business. “I’m proud to see her push the boundaries of economic education and be recognized for it by the AEA and Pearson.”

To learn more about Tontoh’s work and other current research projects in the College of Business, email Elaina Russell at russelle@apsu.edu.