Political Economy · Public Finance · History of Economic Thought

Nejla Routsong

PhD student in Economics, Colorado State University

Open to teaching opportunities & research collaboration

I study the guard economy; specifically, the military, police, carceral, surveillance, and supervisory labor that enforce economic institutions. My work asks why resources in the U.S. have increasingly flowed toward guarding activities, and what that shift means for our economy.

About

Nejla Routsong

I came to economics through degrees in philosophy, international studies, and management, teaching at the university level for nearly 20 years before returning for my Ph.D., which I expect to complete in 2030.

My work sits at the intersection of public finance, political economy, macroeconomics and the history of economic thought.

Before enrolling in my PhD program, I taught economics, political science, and management courses as adjunct and visiting faculty, and worked professionally in roles in management, communications, and marketing.

Outside of work, I garden, hike, and spend time with my dog.

Education
  • MBA, Entrepreneurship & Innovation — Ball State University
  • MA, International Relations — University of Kent, Brussels School of International Studies
  • BA, Philosophy (Mathematics minor) — DePauw University

Research

The guard economy

Every society spends part of its resources enforcing its economic institutions. Some of this spending serves human needs; much of it is the cost of holding unequal arrangements in place, or what the classical economists called unproductive labor. My project is to define the guard economy precisely, measure it across public and private budgets, and read it back through the theorists who first tried to name it.

Every economy spends part of its resources standing guard. That cost, and the economic consequences of it, is my subject.

Evidence · with A. Bernasek (2026)

Across 212 U.S. cities, the median budget has crossed from care-dominant to guard-dominant — now spending more on control than on care.

CARE = CONTROL CARE-DOMINANT GUARD-DOMINANT 1.38 0.87 1977 2000 2023

Source: Routsong & Bernasek (2026), median city care-to-guard ratio, FiSC budget data, real 2023$.

In revision · HOPE Best Paper — CSU Economics Presented · John Jay–URPE, The New School · Feb 2026

An Epistemological Analysis of Guard Labor in the History of Economic Thought

How economists understood guard labor depended on how they understood knowledge itself. This paper reads that history and argues for a complex, dynamic-systems treatment of guard labor's contradictory effects on profitability, against the static-equilibrium framing it usually receives. In revision for History of Political Economy.

Presented · IAFFE 2026 Presented · WSSA / AFIT, Albuquerque · Mar 2026

Transforming the Social Infrastructure from Care to Control: Multi-Level Fiscal Evidence on the Institutional Transformation of U.S. Public Spending, 1977–2023

With Alexandra Bernasek. A measurement-driven account of how municipal spending in the United States has tilted from care toward control, and what drives the shift. Presented at the IAFFE 34th Annual Conference, Cali, Colombia (virtual).

Accepted · WAPE 2026 Presenting · PPE Society, New Orleans · Nov 2026

The Guard Economy and the Contradictions of Hegemony: Smith, Marx, and the Costs of American Empire

Reading Smith and Marx together on unproductive labor, this paper argues that guard expenditure stands in a contradictory relation to accumulation — propping up profitability through imperial structures while dragging on the underlying profit rate.

Talks & Conferences

Where my work has traveled

  1. Nov 2026 PPE Society Annual ConferenceUpcomingNew Orleans — The Guard Economy and the Contradictions of Hegemony
  2. Jul 2026 IAFFE 34th Annual ConferenceCali, Colombia (virtual) — care-to-control in city budgets
  3. Mar 2026 WSSA / AFIT 47th Annual MeetingAlbuquerque, New Mexico — care-to-control in city budgets
  4. Feb 2026 John Jay–URPE ConferenceThe New School, New York — guard labor in the history of economic thought

Teaching

Twenty years in the classroom

I currently lead recitations in macroeconomics as a graduate assistant at Colorado State and, as an online adjunct for Albright College, have taught Economics for Managers (MBA) and Statistical Analysis for Economics and Business.

Before enrolling in my PhD program, I spent close to two decades as adjunct and visiting faculty teaching courses in economics, political science, management, ethics, and entrepreneurship at the Kelley School of Business (Indiana University), Ivy Tech Community College, and Purdue University Fort Wayne. Through the U.S. State Department's Mandela Washington Fellowship, I have also led entrepreneurship and social-innovation workshops for fellows in Nigeria and Ethiopia.

Contact

Get in touch

Currently available for teaching and research collaborations, online or in the Fort Collins area.

Email

nejla.routsong@colostate.edu

Department

Department of Economics
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, Colorado