Sarah Estelle is professor of economics at Hope College. Because economics is a study of the causes and consequences of human behavior, it can be useful everywhere and used by everyone. Consequently, Professor Estelle enjoys being part of her discipline’s efforts to extend the theories and empirical techniques of the not-so-dismal science to a wide variety of human actions and diverse human experiences.

For example, Professor Estelle has published applied microeconomics research on criminal justice reform, investments in higher education, risky adolescent behavior, and parents’ investments in children. More broadly yet, Professor Estelle is intrigued by the roles of communities, institutions, and government in human flourishing and, as part of this curiosity, is especially fascinated by the contributions of Nobel Laureate economist F. A. Hayek related to knowledge, cultural evolution, and order not of human design but of human action. Most recently Professor Estelle has undertaken work bridging the principles of traditional Christian teaching and economics and especially applying the lessons of economics to the Christian virtue of love, thickly construed.

Professor Estelle is the founding director of Hope’s Markets & Morality student organization, which explores economic issues through a Christian lens and brings speakers and film screenings to campus to enrich the Hope community’s understanding of markets. In 2022–23, Markets & Morality celebrated its tenth year.

Areas of expertise 

• Applied microeconomics, labor and public economics
• Hayek and Christianity
• Love and economics

Education

• Ph.D., economics, University of Virginia, 2008
• B.A., economics, Hillsdale College, 2000

Selected publications

• Religious Liberty in the States 2023: A Domestic Measure of Statutory Safeguards for the Free Exercise of Religion, statistical index, detailed dataset and academic report, November 2023
• “Workforce Development in Michigan,” research report for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, May 2019
• “Smart Sentencing Guidelines: The Effect of Marginal Policy Changes on Recidivism,” with David Phillips, Journal of Public Economics, August 2018
• “Will Daughters Walk Mom’s Talk? The Effects of Maternal Communication about Sex on the Sexual Behavior of Female Adolescents,” with Susan Averett, Review of Economics of the Household, December 2014
• “The Academic Impact on Children of Maternal Post-Secondary Enrollment,” Economics of Education Review, April 2011

Selected Presentations

• “‘Economics is What Economists Do’: Why Developing an Index from Statutory Law Requires Economic Science” American Economic Association meetings for the Association of Christian Economists, January 6, 2024
• “For Love of God and Neighbor: Economic Wisdom and the Mission of the Church,” Kern Family Foundation Faculty Development Workshops, Dallas, November 2022, and Milwaukee, August 2023
• “The Economic Ways of Loving,” Chesterton House Christian Study Center (Cornell University) April 10, 2023, and Kennesaw State University (GA) April 26, 2022
• “Holding Fast to Essentials, Acknowledging the Negotiables: Recommendations for Christian Cultural Engagement,” Southern Economic Association Meetings, November 21, 2022
• “Classical and Christian Notions of Love and the Relevance of Economics as Prudence,” Ciceronian Society, March 12, 2022
• “Sound Theology: A Solution to the Local Knowledge Problem?” Eudaimonia Institute, Wake Forest University, March 2020

Outside the college

Professor Estelle — a native of Traverse City, Michigan — loves to read, garden, bake, and walk everywhere she can. She lives in Holland with her husband, Aaron (artist and Assistant to the Director of Markets & Morality). They love to travel in search of good food and diverse cultural experiences, whether near or far, and travel abroad as often as possible.