Associate Professor of Economics Veronika Dolar, PhD, is examining how structural inequalities affect opportunities in areas such as labor, health, and sports economics. Dolar, a faculty member at Pace University’s Economics department, integrates real-world data into her teaching and mentoring to help undergraduate students produce publishable research.
Dolar’s recent research focuses on the relationship between income inequality and national performance at the Winter Olympic Games. She found that countries with higher income inequality tend to send smaller teams and win fewer medals, even after considering factors like GDP and population. “While anyone can, in principle, qualify for the Olympics, the cost of elite training, coaching, equipment, and facilities make participation inaccessible to many,” she explained.
Her analysis uses data from every Winter Games between 1992 and 2022 to examine how societies convert human capital into achievement. Dolar has presented her findings at conferences including the Eastern Economic Association and the Center for Sociocultural Sport and Olympic Research. She has also developed interactive data visualization tools for policymakers, journalists, and students.
In her classroom at Pace University, Dolar incorporates her own research into courses such as economic inequality. Students work directly with datasets from sources like the World Bank to replicate analyses on topics ranging from education to healthcare. “Economics isn’t just about money or markets,” she emphasized. “It’s about human potential and fairness—who gets to compete and succeed.”
Dolar collaborates with students on research projects as well. One example is a manuscript co-developed with undergraduate Fatima Abba ’26 inspired by Robert Reich’s Wealth & Poverty lecture series. Supported by university awards, this project will serve as a foundation for Dolar’s upcoming textbook Understanding Economic Inequality: An Introductory Guide Through Real-World Economics. “It was transformative,” she reflected. “The students gained hands-on experience with data, writing, and policy analysis. It showed them that research can become real scholarship.”
Dolar has also contributed to modernizing economics education through co-authoring new editions of ECON MACRO and ECON MICRO textbooks (Cengage Learning), which connect theory to everyday examples such as competition between ice cream brands or changes in egg prices. She addresses gender gaps in economics through another book used in her course on Economics of Gender, Race, and Class.
“What motivates me is seeing that ‘aha’ moment when students realize economics can explain the forces shaping their lives. That curiosity and empowerment are what make this work so rewarding,” she said.
