Lake County Gazette

Assistant Professor Linh Pham of Lake Forest College has been recognized as one of the top economists by IDEAS and Research Papers in Economics (RePEc). According to the latest rankings released in August 2025, Pham is listed among the top 10 percent of authors overall, the top 10 percent of female economists, and the top 10 percent of authors over the past decades. These rankings are based on an evaluation of more than 71,900 registered authors.

Pham's research focuses on balancing economic and financial objectives with environmental considerations. She investigates how energy use and pollution relate to broader economic and social factors such as growth, education, and crime. Additionally, her work examines how financial markets can support sustainable investments.

“The recognition motivates me to work harder and is a reminder for me to constantly learn and expand my knowledge,” Pham said. “In the future, I hope to place a greater emphasis on mentoring the next generation of researchers, helping them grow their skills and ideas.”

Pham plans to continue participating in student research initiatives at Lake Forest College. These include programs like Richter, the Student Symposium, senior theses projects, and independent studies.

“At the same time, I want to broaden the impact of my work by engaging more with non-profit organizations and collaborators outside academia, so that research can contribute more directly to addressing real-world challenges,” she added. “Above all, I hope my research can inform better decision making, by analyzing the opportunity costs, trade-offs, intended and unintended consequences of various course of actions by a wide range of stakeholders such as firms, consumers, and policymakers.”

IDEAS compiles its rankings using data from RePEc. IDEAS is known as the largest bibliographic database in economics; it indexes over 5.1 million research items—4.6 million available in full text. RePEc is a volunteer-run project that aims to make economics research freely accessible by gathering bibliographic information from more than 2,000 archives managed by publishers and institutions.