Monica Deza

Associate Professor, Economics Department

Senior Research Associate, Center for Policy Research

Research Affiliate, Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health

Courses

2025 Fall
- ECN 301 Intermediate Microeconomics
2025 Spring
- ECN 311 Intermediate Mathematical Microeconomics
- ECN 610 Special Topics in Economics - Economics of Crime
2024 Fall
- ECN 301 Intermediate Microeconomics
2024 Spring
- ECN 301 Intermediate Microeconomics
- ECN 610 Special Topics in Economics - Economics of Crime

Highest degree earned

Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 2012

Bio

Monica Deza is an associate professor in the Economics Department and a senior research associate in the Center for Policy Research. She received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California Berkeley in 2012, where her research interests included economics of crime and risky health behaviors, labor economics and economic demography.

Deza’s research examines determinants of risky health behaviors among youth, particularly drug use and criminal behavior, using empirical methods that run the gamut from quasi-experimental to structural. Deza’s research provides a means of better understanding the extent to which policies that are not specifically intended to decrease crime (e.g. education, access to mental health, labor markets, climate, among others) can have important and previously underappreciated positive spillovers.

Deza is a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) program on Health Economics and a research affiliate at the Center for Health Economics of Treatment Interventions for Substance Use Disorder, HCV, ad HIV (CHERISH).

Areas of Expertise

Economics of Crime, Labor Economics, Economic Demography, Economics of Risky health behaviors

Research Grant Awards and Projects

"Exploration of the Relationship Between Substance and Employment: A Structural Approach", Sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Selected Publications

Journal Articles
- Deza, M., Maclean, C., Lu, T. and Ortega, A., "Behavioral Health Treatment and Police Officer Safety." Journal of Human Resources, 2025.
- Danagoulian , S., Deza, M., "Driving Under the Influence of Allergies: The Effect of Seasonal Pollen on Traffic Fatalities." Journal of Health Economics, 2025.
- Deza, M., Mezza, A., "The Intergenerational Effects of the Vietnam Draft on Risky Behaviors." Journal of Labor Economics, 2025.
- Deza, M., "Seasonal Pollen Increases Traffic Fatalities in the United States." Journal of Health Economics , 2024.
- Deza, M., Lu, T. and Maclean, J. C., "Office‐based mental healthcare and juvenile arrests." Health Economics, 2022.
- Amuedo-Dorantes, C., Deza, M., "Can Sanctuary Policies Reduce Domestic Violence?." American Law and Economics Review, 2022.
- Deza, M., Maclean, J. C. and Solomon, K., "Local access to mental healthcare and crime." Journal of Urban Economics, 2022.
- Dave, D., Deza, M. and Horn, B., "Prescription drug monitoring programs, opioid abuse, and crime." Southern Economic Journal, 2021.
Technical Reports
- Deza, M., Zhu, M., More Girls in the Classroom Improves Adolescent Mental Health. Syracuse University Libraries, 2025.
- Amuedo-Dorantes, C., Deza, M., Kostandini, G. and Luo, T., Intergenerational Spillovers of Driving Privileges for Undocumented Immigrants: Evidence from Early Childhood Education. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2024.
- Chalfin, A., Danagoulian, S. and Deza, M., COVID-19 Has Strengthened the Relationship Between Alcohol Consumption and Domestic Violence. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2021.

Presentations and Events

Eleventh Annual Conference of the American Society of Health Economists (ASHEcon), Southern Economic Association (SEA), Empirical Criminal Law Roundtable at Duke University (2022)

Tenth Annual Conference of the American Society of Health Economists (ASHEcon), Southern Economics Association 91st Annual Meeting, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) COVID-19 and Health Outcomes Spring Conference (2021)

Department of Economics at West Virginia University, Online Economics of Crime Seminar, O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs Health Policy Workshop at Indiana University (2020)

Department of Economics at Rutgers University, Annual Eastern Economic Association Conference, Department of Economics Tulane University, NYU Race Crime and Policing Workshop, Center for Demography of Health and Aging at University of Wisconsin- Madison, Department of Economics at University of Connecticut (2019)

American Economic Association Annual Meeting, Department of Economics CUNY Graduate Center, Department of Economics Temple University, Seventh Annual Conference of the American Society of Health Economists (ASHEcon); Southeastern Health Economics Study Group Conference (2018)