Madhavi Venkatesan
Associate Teaching Professor of Economics
Madhavi Venkatesan earned her doctorate, master’s and bachelor’s degrees in economics from Vanderbilt University and has published three economics textbooks under the series A Framework for Sustainable Practices: Economic Principles: A Primer, Foundations of Microeconomics and Foundations for Macroeconomics. In 2019 she published her fourth text, SDG8 – Sustainable Economic Growth and Decent Work for All. She is presently under contract with Routledge to write SDG12: Responsible Consumption and Production and her text, Economics of Sustainability is scheduled to be published by Springer in late 2021.
In 2016, Madhavi established Sustainable Practices, a 501(c)3 nonprofit with a mission “to facilitate a culture of sustainability as defined by reducing the human-made impact to the planet and its ecosystems” within Barnstable County, Massachusetts and is the organization’s executive director. In 2019, Sustainable Practices initiated the Municipal Plastic Bottle Ban campaign and in spring 2020, facilitated the Commercial Single-use Plastic Water Bottle Ban. As of July 2021, the Municipal Ban has been adopted in all 15 towns that constitute Barnstable County, and the Commercial Ban had been adopted by Town Meeting vote in ten towns and will be in effect in all ten towns in 2021. The organization is continuing its efforts related to the Commercial Ban.
Madhavi’s academic interests include the integration of sustainability into the economics curriculum. She has been active in promoting education and stakeholder engagement to incorporate ethics into the existing economic framework and her written work has largely focused on these topics as a catalyst to promoting sustainability. Madhavi has also contributed to the literature on the relationship between culture, sustainability, and economics, addressing the relationship between economic systems and cultural convergence. Prior to reentering academics in 2014, Madhavi held senior-level positions in investor relations for three U.S. domiciled insurers (Unum Group, AIG, and The Hartford).ECON 1711 Economics of Sustainability ECON 3916: Economics of Race
News @ Northeastern: What is the real cost of a bottle of soda?
Venkatesan, M. (forthcoming 2021). Sustainable Practices: A Case Study of a grassroots movement. In Aleksandra Machnik, Alexandra Zbuchea, Anna Królikowska-Tomczak, Walter Leal Filho (Eds.) Handbook Sustainable Consumption and Quality of Life: Towards integrating consumer policy strategies for improved life quality. Berlin: Springer.
Venkatesan, M. (forthcoming 2021). Social and Sustainability Marketing and the Sharing economy in the Coffee Shop Culture. In Bhattacharyya, J., Dash, M.K, Hewege, C., Balaji, M.S, & Lim, W. M. (Eds.), Social and Sustainability Marketing: A Casebook for Reaching Your Socially Responsible Consumers through Marketing Science (1st ed.). New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis.
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Education
PhD, Economics, Vanderbilt University
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Contact
9174960440 m.venkatesan@northeastern.edu twitter -
Address
360 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115 -
Office Hours
Virtual (set up an appointment by email m.venkatesan@northeastern.edu)
