Dr. Catherine Pakaluk is the Director of Social Research and an Associate Professor at the Catholic University of America, Busch School of Business. She is the founder of the Social Research academic area, where she is an Associate Professor of Social Research and Economic Thought. Formerly, she was Assistant Professor and Chair of the Economics Department at Ave Maria University. Her primary areas of research include economics of education and religion, family studies and demography, Catholic social thought, and political economy. Dr. Pakaluk is the 2015 recipient of the Acton Institute’s Novak Award, a prize awarded for “significant contributions to the study of the relationship between religion and economic liberty.”
Dr. Pakaluk is also the author of Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth, shedding light on the 5% of American women who choose to defy the demographic norm by bearing five or more children. Hannah’s Children is a compelling portrait of these overlooked but fascinating mothers who, like the biblical Hannah, see their children as their purpose, their contribution, and their greatest blessing.
Dr. Pakaluk did her doctoral work at Harvard University under Caroline Hoxby, David Cutler, and 2016 Nobel-laureate Oliver Hart. Her dissertation, “Essays in Applied Microeconomics”, examined the relationship between religious ‘fit’ and educational outcomes, the role of parental effort in observed peer effects and school quality, and theoretical aspects of the contraceptive revolution regarding twentieth-century demographic trends.
Beyond her formal training in economics, Dr. Pakaluk studied Catholic social thought under the mentorship of F. Russell Hittinger, and various aspects of Thomistic thought with Steven A. Long. She is a widely admired writer and sought-after speaker on matters of culture, gender, social science, the vocation of women, and the work of Edith Stein. She lives in Maryland with her husband Michael Pakaluk and eight children.
