Maria Porter

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Economy and Moral Science at the University of Arizona. I also have a courtesy appointment in the Department of Agricultural & Applied Economics.  My research areas are in applied microeconomics, agricultural economics, risk and insurance, impact evaluation, social preferences, and intra-household resource allocation. I explore social and psychological factors influencing people’s decisions – as family members, farmers, workers, or entrepreneurs - and how these decisions impact others. I have taught courses in intermediate microeconomics, household and development economics, behavioral and experimental economics, and econometrics. I completed my PhD in Economics at the University of Chicago.

Publications

Porter, M., Nuhu, A.S., Nakasone, E., and Maredia, M. 2025. "Trust, Risk, and Institutions: Experimental Evidence from a Community of Firms in Kenya." Journal of Economic Psychology. 110: 102834.

Kramer, B., Porter, M., and Wassie, S.B. 2025. "Basis Risk, Social Comparison, Perceptions of Fairness and Demand for Insurance: A Field Experiment in Ethiopia." Journal of Risk and Insurance. http://doi.org/10.1111/jori.70015

Maredia, M., Nakasone, E., Porter, M., Nordhagen, S., Caputo, V., Djimeu, E.W., Jones, A., Mbuya, M.N.N., Ortega, D., Toure, D., and Tschirley, D. 2024. “Using novel multi-method evaluation approaches to understand complex food system interventions: Insights from a supply chain intervention intended to improve nutrition.” Current Developments in Nutrition 8(6): 103776.

Nakasone, E., Porter, M., Jones, A., Maredia, M., and Tschirley, D. 2024. “A mixed methods assessment of technical and financial assistance to small- and medium-sized enterprises in Kenya´s food sector.” Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy 46(2): 435-455.

Maredia, M., Porter, M., Caputo, V., Nakasone, E., and Ortega, D. 2024. "Does increasing the availability of a nutritious food produced by a small- and medium-sized enterprise increase its consumption? Evidence from a field experiment in Kenya." Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy 46(2): 414-434. [Maredia and Porter equally share the senior authorship]

Caputo, V., Kaminski, D., and Porter, M. 2023. “Dairy workers’ preferences for compensatory benefits: A field experiment with U.S. immigrants and students.” Journal of the
Agricultural and Applied Economics Association 2(2): 198–214.

Farris, J., Porter, M., Jin, S., and Maredia, M. 2023. “Growing Pains: Season-Specific In-Utero Rainfall Shocks Impact Child Growth in Rural Rwanda.” Economic Development and Cultural Change 71(2): 793-818. [Farris is 1st author, Porter is 2nd author, Jin and Maredia are equal 3rd authors]

Kassas, B., Palma, M., and Porter, M. 2022. “Happy to Take Some Risk: Estimating the Effect of Induced Emotions on Risk Preferences.” Journal of Economic Psychology 91.

Wang, Y., Porter, M. and Jin, S. 2020. “The impact of health insurance on healthcare service use and costs: evidence from rural China.” China Agricultural Economic Review 13(2):418-435. https://doi.org/10.1108/CAER-06-2020-0148. [Porter is corresponding author and 2nd author]