Northern Illinois University
Department of Economics
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Virginia Wilcox, Ph.D.
Professor, Undergraduate Director and Assistant Chair

Education and Experience

Professor Virginia Wilcox received her Ph.D. from Washington University in 1984. Before joining the faculty at NIU, she taught at the University of Florida and Rutgers University. She has been the principal investigator on several grants from federal agencies and private foundations. In recent years she has served as the director of Graduate Studies and department chair..

Research

• Effects of health on human capital investment
• Labor market outcomes

Areas of Specialization

Labor and Health Economics

Courses Taught

• Economics 260: Principles of Microeconomics
• Economics 300: Labor Economics (Race and Gender in the Labor Market)
• Economics 360: Intermediate Microeconomics
• Economics 371: Health Economics
• Economics 492: Research Methods in Economics
• Economics 489/589: Seminar in Econ Analysis (Health Economics)
• Economics 700: Labor Market Analysis I

Selected Publications

• "The Impact of Maternal Depression on Children’s Cognitive Development: An Analysis Based on Panel Quantile Regressions." Yu and Wilcox-Gök. Economics Letters 126, 2015, 107-09.
• "Economic Consequences of Mental health Problems in Older People for other Family Members." Wilcox-Gök and McNamee. Journal of Health Services Research and Policy 15, 2010, 35-40.
• "Do the Sick Retire Early? Chronic Poor Health Asset Accumulation, and Early Retirement". Miah and Wilcox-Gök. Applied Economics 39(15), 2007, 1921-36.
• "Early Onset Depression and High School Dropout," in The Economics of Gender and Mental Illness (Research in Human Capital and Development, Volume 15). D.E.Marcotte and Wilcox-Gök, eds. (Amsterdam: Elsevier Science, 2004) (with D.E.Marcotte, F.Farahati, and C.Borkowski).
• "Estimating Earnings Losses Due to Mental Illness: A Quantile Regression Approach." Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics 6(3), 2003, 123-134 (with D.E.Marcotte).
• "The Effects of Parents' Psychiatric Disorders on Children's High School Dropout." Economics of Education Review, 22(2), 2003 (with F.Farahati and D.E.Marcotte).
• "The Economic Performance of For-Profit and Not-for-Profit Hospitals." Applied Economics, 34, 2002, 479-489. "The Labor Market Effects of Mental Illness: The Case of Affective Disorders." The Economics of Disability, D. Salkever, ed. (Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 2000) (with D.E.Marcotte).
• "Health Service Utilization and Insurance Coverage: A Multivariate Probit Analysis." Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 93, No. 441, 1998, pp. 63-72 (with .D.Gibbons).
• "Mother's Education, Health Practices, and Children's Health Needs: A Variance Components Model." Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. LXVII, No. 4, December 1985, pp. 706-710.
• "Family Background and Child Health: An Application of Sibling and Adoption Data." Review of Economics and Statistics, LXV(2), May 1983, pp. 266-273.