Catherine Ruth Pakaluk is Associate Professor of Economics and Executive Director of The James Cardinal Gibbons Institute for Human Ecology. Catherine is author of the widely acclaimed ethnography Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth, a multidisciplinary account of American women choosing to have large families against the global trend to sub-replacement fertility. Her work has been reviewed or covered in The New Yorker, Slate, The Atlantic, The Times (of London), The Wall Street Journal, Freakonomics Radio, NPR, Fox News, and more. She is also the 2015 recipient of the Acton Institute’s Novak Award for “significant contributions to the study of the relationship between religion and economic liberty.”
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 as regards 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.
Education
- B.A. Economics and Mathematics, University of Pennsylvania
- A.M. Economics, Harvard University
- Ph.D. Economics, Harvard University
Expertise
- Applied Microeconomics
- Economics of Education and Religion
- Family Studies and Demography
- Catholic Social Thought
- Political Economy
Courses Taught
- SRES 315: Catholic Social Thought and Political Economy
- SRES 345: Marriage, Family, and Social Order
- SRES 350: Education and Religion in Social Research
- SRES 470: Free Enterprise, Liberty, and the Common Good
Publications
Books:
Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth. Regnery Gateway: Washington, DC, 2024.
Can A Catholic Be A Socialist? The Answer is No—Here’s Why (with T Horn). Catholic Answers Press: El Cajon, CA, 2020.
Forthcoming: Rerum Novarum, Study Edition forthcoming, Ignatius Press, 2026.
Peer-reviewed Journal Articles:
A Claim of Conscience: The Duty to Prove Oneself a Resistor (with M Pakaluk). The Linacre Quarterly. Online first, May 2024. Link.
Not Planned by Us: Motive and Meaning Among American Women with Upper-Tail Birth Rates. Cosmos + Taxis: Studies in Emergent Order and Organization, Special Issue: Gender and Emergent Order. Vol. 11 [11+12], 2023, pp. 62-79. Link.
What Good is a Good Fit? Religious Matching and Educational Outcomes. Cosmos + Taxis: Studies in Emergent Order and Organization, Special Issue: Economics of Religion. Vol. 9 [1+2], 2021, pp. 3-31. Link.
Are Mothers and Fathers Interchangeable Caregivers? (with J Price). Marriage & Family Review. Vol 56 [8], 16 June 2020, pp. 784-793. Link.
The Paradox of the Pill: Heterogeneous Effects of Oral Contraceptive Access (with A Beauchamp). Economic Inquiry, Vol 57 [2], April 2019, pp. 813-831. Link.
[Top 10% most downloaded paper in initial 12 months following publication.]
The Seton Option: Catholic Schools and Good Citizens. Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly, Vol. 41 [1], April 2018, pp. 51-60.
Dependence on God and Man: Toward a Catholic Constitution of Liberty, 2015 Calihan Lecture, Journal of Markets and Morality, Vol 19 [2], Fall 2016, pp. 227-252.
Soulmates, Paradoxes, and the Significance of the Family for American Political Economy, The Natural Family, Vol 30 [2], Spring 2016, pp. 215-228.
Non-Traditional Families and Progress through School: A Comment on Rosenfeld (with D Allen and J Price) Demography, Vol 50 [3], June 2013, pp. 955-961. Link.
HIV-1-associated Kaposi’s sarcoma in a predominantly black population at an inner city hospital (with FW Dawkins, RA Delapenha, EE Frezza, WR Green, WR Frederick, and A Manns). Southern Medical Journal, Vol 91[6], June 1998, pp. 546-549.
Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma among people with AIDS: incidence, presentation and public health burden (with TR Coté, RJ Biggar, PS Rosenberg, SS Devesa, C Percy, FJ Yellin, G Lemp, JJ Geodert, and WA Blattner). International Journal of Cancer, Vol 73 [5], Nov 1997, pp. 645-650.
Epidemiology of brain lymphoma among people with or without acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (with TR Cote, A Manns, FJ Yellin and P Hartge). AIDS/Cancer Study Group. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol 88[10], May 1996, pp. 675.
Peer-reviewed Book Chapters:
“Socialism and Capitalism in Catholic Social Thought.” In Catholic Social Teaching: A Volume of Scholarly Essays, edited by Gerard V. Bradley and E. Christian Brugger. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2019, pp. 433-467. Link.
“Solidarity and Job Creation: Substitutes or Complements.” (with JA Burke and A Widmer) In The Challenge of Charity: Freedom and Charity Working Together, edited by Martin Schlag, Juan Andres Mercado, Jennifer E. Miller. MCEBooks: Rome, IT, 2015, pp. 245-257.
Other Publications (Selected):
Restoring the Balance Between Children’s Interests and Public Health: A Commonsense Agenda for Childhood Vaccines. First Principles, The Heritage Foundation. March 12, 2025. Link.
Marriagelessness and the Loss of National Greatness. First Principles, The Heritage Foundation. April 24, 2024. Link.
The Pulse of Natality—What We’re Missing About Falling Birthrates. Fusion. December 2023. Link.
The State Can’t Save the American Family. National Review Online. October 14, 2022. Link.
The Eternal Return of Price Controls. Law & Liberty. April 20, 2022. Link.
Creating Flexible, Family-Friendly Schools, in 7 Proposals to Make America More Family-Friendly. American Compass. February 24, 2021. Link.
What Coronavirus Taught Us About the American Family. America: The Jesuit Review. February 15, 2021. Link.
Adam Smith, Inclination, and Need: A Re-interpretation of Self Interest. Adam Smith Works. August 19, 2020. Link.
Whither Humane Economics? In Defense of Wonder and Admiration in Natural Science. [Review of M. Hirschfeld, Aquinas and the Market: Toward a Humane Economy, Harvard University Press, 2018.] Public Discourse: The Journal of the Witherspoon Institute. March 27, 2019. Link.
Love, Economics, and Cheap Sex. [Review of M. Regnerus, Cheap Sex, Oxford University Press, 2017.] Public Discourse: The Journal of the Witherspoon Institute. August 8, 2018. Link.
Michael Novak: A Model for Social Scientists. Public Discourse: The Journal of the Witherspoon Institute. November 9, 2017. Link.
“With Motherly Care: Addressing the Crisis of Human Flourishing in Our Time.” In Promise and Challenge: Catholic Women Reflect on Feminism, Complementarity, and the Church, edited by Mary Rice Hasson. Our Sunday Visitor: Huntington, IN, 2015.
Review, Forced Labor: What’s Wrong with Balancing Work and Family, Journal of Markets and Morality, 2003, 6(2), 699-702.