Economists

Dr. Gregory DeFreitas

Gregory DeFreitas, PhD, is a tenured Professor of Economics at Hofstra University. He is also the founder and Former Director of the Labor Studies Degree Program at Hofstra. Dr. DeFreitas is the Director of the Center for the Study of Labor and Democracy and edits its journal, Regional Labor Review. The RLR has since 1998 been the premier source of independent research on major employment issues in the New York Metropolitan Area.   Before joining Hofstra’s faculty, he taught at Barnard College, Columbia University, the University of Toronto, and Cambridge University. He was educated at Stanford, Cambridge, and Columbia University, where he received his Ph.D. in Economics. 

Dr. DeFreitas has written widely on recent U.S. job and pay trends, the economics of immigration, earnings inequality, youth unemployment and the New York City economy. And he has testified on these issues before Congressional committees and the New York City Council. His books include Young Workers in the Global Economy: Job Challenges in North America, Europe and Japan (Edward Elgar Pubs.) and Inequality At Work: Hispanics in the US Labor Force (Oxford University Press). For more information, see the webpage:  http://people.hofstra.edu/Gregory_E_Defreitas/

Dr. Niev Duffy

Niev Duffy, PhD, is a Director of Eastern Economic Research, Inc., a Research Associate at the Center for the Study of Labor and Democracy and a member of the editorial board of its journal, Regional Labor Review. Dr. Duffy taught economics for many years at NYU, Hofstra University, and SUNY Old Westbury. She was formerly on the research faculty of the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and was the Director of Research at the JFK Jr. Institute for Worker Education, CUNY. Her research projects and publications have covered a wide array of pressing employment, health and educational issues. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from New York University.