Gordon McCord

Gordon McCord is an assistant teaching professor of economics at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego. His research often employs spatial data and spatial analysis to explore topics such as the evolving role of geography in economic development, the burden of infectious diseases such as malaria and hookworm in a changing climate, the impact of agricultural technology diffusion, and the spatial patterns of violent conflict.

In public health, his research includes financial modeling of primary health care systems in rural sub-Saharan Africa as well as creating ecology-based models to estimate infectious disease burden in populations lacking accurate health data collection systems.

McCord studied poverty traps, foreign aid and poverty reduction strategies in his position as special assistant to Jeffrey Sachs at Columbia University’s Earth Institute and the United Nations Millennium Project.  More recently, he has helped advise developing country governments on integrated rural development and poverty program targeting using data-driven approaches.

McCord has a PhD in sustainable development from Columbia University. 

• Development economics
• Environment
• Public health

Bergmann, Julie N., Kenneth Legins, Tin Tin Sint, Sarah Snidal, UNICEF Working Group, Yanis Ben Amor, and Gordon C. McCord. 2017. "Outcomes and Cost-Effectiveness of Integrating HIV and Nutrition Service Delivery: Pilots in Malawi and Mozambique." AIDS and Behavior 21 (3): 703–11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-016-1400-3.

Christensen, Peter, and Gordon C. McCord. 2016. "Geographic Determinants of China’s Urbanization." Regional Science and Urban Economics 59:90–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2016.05.001.

McArthur, John W., and Gordon C. McCord. 2017.  "Fertilizing Growth: Agricultural Inputs and their Effects in Economic Development." Journal of Development Economics 127:133–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2017.02.007.

McCord, Gordon. 2016. "Malaria Ecology and Climate Change." European Physics Journal Special Topics 225:459–70. DOI: 10.1140/epjst/e2015-50097-1.

McCord, Gordon C., and Jesse K. Anttila-Hughes. 2017.  "A Malaria Ecology Index Predicted Spatial and Temporal Variation of Malaria Burden and Efficacy of Antimalarial Interventions Based on African Serological Data." American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 96 (3): 616–23.  https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.16-0602.

McCord, Gordon C., Dalton Conley, and Jeffrey D. Sachs. 2017. "Malaria Ecology, Child Mortality, and Fertility." Economics and Human Biology 24:1–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2016.10.011.

McCord, Gordon, Carrie Dolan, Ariel BenYishay, Karen A. Grépin, Jeffrey C. Tanner, April Kimmel and David Wheeler. 2019. "The Impact of an Insecticide Treated Bednet Campaign on All-Cause Child Mortality: A Geospatial Impact Evaluation from the Democratic Republic of Congo." PLOS ONE. February 22.

McCord, Gordon, and Thomas E. Novotny. 2018. "The Benefits of Taxing Cigarettes in Middle Income Countries." BMJ 361:k1433.

McCord, Gordon C., and Jeffrey D. Sachs. 2015. "Physical Geography and the History of Economic Development." Faith and Economics 66:11–43.