Mark A. Constas

Biography

Mark Constas is a professor of applied economics and policy in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. He is a fellow of the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition and a fellow of the Atkinson Center for Sustainability. Through his writing and leadership, Constas has contributed to work that explores how the concept of resilience may be theorized and operationalized as a focal point of measurement and evaluation for development assistance and humanitarian aid. He is particularly interested in advancing measurement approaches in applied settings where theoretical formulations can be put to the test and improved upon. In support of such work, he served as chair of the Resilience Measurement Technical Working Group, a global initiative under the auspices of The Food and Agriculture Organization and The World Food Program.

Constas regularly participates in expert panels on food security and resilience and has served as an advisor to several organizations in the United Nations system. His work has appeared in a selection of highly competitive peer-reviewed journals, including Nature, World Development, Global Food Security, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. His work has also been published by United Nations agencies, reaching policy audiences and implementers in developing countries.

Selected Publications

• Ampapore, Andrea; Constas, Mark; Fossi, Filippo; Gauny, Josselin; Marsland, Neil; Ulimwengu, John. "The Data in Emergencies (DIEM) Hub for evaluating multiple shock impacts on food security"Nature Food. 4 (2023): 628-629
• Béné, ​Christophe; Frankenberger, Timothy; Nelson, Suzanne; Constas, Mark; Collins, Gregory; et al. "Food system resilience measurement: principles, framework and caveats"Food Security. 15.6 (2023): 1437-1458
• Constas, Mark. "Food security and resilience: The potential for coherence and the reality of fragmented applications in policy and research"Resilience and Food Security - Analysis from a Food System Perspective, Palgrave Studies in Agricultural Economics and Food Policy Series, Ed. Christophe Béné, Ed. Stephen Devereux. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. (2023): 147-184
• Constas, Mark; d'Errico, Marco; Pietrelli, Rebecca. "Toward Core Indicators for Resilience Analysis: A framework to promote harmonized metrics and empirical coherence"Global Food Security. 35 (2022): 100655
• Constas, Mark; Mattioli, Laura; Russo, Luca. "What does resilience imply for development practice? Tools for more coherent programming and evaluation of resilience"Development Policy Review. 39.4 (2021): 588-603
• Constas, Mark; d'Errico, Marco; Hoddinott, John; Pietrelli, Rebecca. "Resilient food systems – A proposed analytical strategy for empirical applications"Background paper for The State of Food and Agriculture 2021. Food and Agriculture Organization. FAO Agricultural Development Economics Working Paper 21-10 (2021): 46pp
• Jones, Lindsey; Constas, Mark; Mathews, Nathanial; Verkaart, Simone. "Advancing resilience measurement"Nature Sustainability. 4 (2021): 288-289
• Constas, Mark; Wohlgemuth, Max; Ulimwengu, John. "A measurement approach for a health systems-sensitive resilience score: Measuring progress toward the Malabo Declaration goals in the midst of COVID-19"Building resilient African food systems after COVID-19, Ed. John Ulimwengu, Ed. Mark Constas, Ed. Éliane Ubalijoro. AKADEMIYA2063 and International Food Policy Research Institute. (2021): 156-170
• Knippenberg, Erwin; Jensen, Nathaniel; Constas, Mark. "Quantifying household resilience with high frequency data: Temporal dynamics and methodological options"World Development. 121 (2019): 1-15
• Barrett, Christopher; Constas, Mark. "Toward a theory of resilience for international development applications"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 111.40 (2014): 14625-14630

Recent Courses

• AEM 6991 - MPS Research Seminar I
• AEM 2805 - Strategic Responses to Poverty and Hunger in Developing Countries

Academic Degrees

• PhD Cornell University, 1987
• BS Northeastern University, 1983