CI economist finds his niche in research
CSU Channel Islands economist Miguel Delgado Helleseter got into his field almost by chance.
“I was not extremely good at math, so I knew that engineering-type careers were not a path for me,” he told the Business Times.
“And I had thought about pursuing law, but my brother who really doesn’t like lawyers, persuaded me not to pursue law,” Delgado Helleseter, 49, said.
And so, he found economics to be a good middle ground where he had to have some math skills and also be able to make logical arguments.
Today, he leads CSU Channel Islands’ Institute for Global Economic Research, which provides regional, national and international economic data and forecasts.
His students there are currently working on a consumer sentiment survey for Ventura County.
Delgado Helleseter said becoming an economist turned out to be a good career choice.
“I think economists have a unique way of understanding the world, both practical and logical,” he said.
“After the first principles course I took I was hooked, and I knew there was no other degree I could imagine pursuing,” Delgado Helleseter said.
He said an economist’s perspective helps him think logically and clearly in both professional and personal matters.
“Like anyone else’s path, mine has had its ups and downs, but I cannot think of any other background I would have wanted to navigate my life,” Delgado Helleseter said.
Born in his mother’s native Norway and raised in Costa Rica, where his father was from, Delgado Helleseter came to the U.S. in 2000.
He earned a bachelor’s in economics from UC Riverside in 2003, a master’s in business economics from UC Santa Barbara in 2004 and a Ph.D in economics in 2013, also from UC Santa Barbara.
Delgado Helleseter started his career as a senior economist at Santa Barbara-based RDN, Inc., a data-driven economic analyses consulting firm, from 2004 to 2011.
He was a UC Santa Barbara economics lecturer from 2014 to July 2015, then began his tenure at CSU Channel Islands in Aug. 2015 as an assistant professor of economics.
Delgado Helleseter became an associate professor of economics at the university in June 2021.
He is also the director of the university’s Institute for Global Economic Research.
Delgado Helleseter teaches an upper-division economics course at the institute in which his students, under his direction, perform such work as collecting data for the reports and forecasts.
Delgado Helleseter also teaches other courses at the university apart from the institute.
Along with its upsides, being an economist comes with its challenges too, he said.
“Economists typically have this reputation of being two-handed: on the one hand it’s this and on the other hand it’s that,” Delgado Helleseter he said.
“And that comes across as we could say anything that way,” he said. “Basically, just defend any opposing position and not have to be clear.”
So, it can be challenging, Delgado Helleseter said, to have people take seriously what economists do and the amount of work that goes into it.
Jared Barton, chair of the CSU Channel Islands business and economics department, as well as a professor of economics, said Delgado Helleseter is invested in his students, but has high standards for them.
“As an instructor, he’s willing to put significant effort into helping students meet his expectations, but they have to meet them,” Barton said.
“Students know that if they’re in class with ‘MDH’, as they call him, they better put in the time,” he said.
Despite those strict standards, Delgado Helleseter’s economics graduates love him, Barton said.
“When I hear from alumni, I inevitably find out that Miguel had already been in contact with them the entire time,” he said.
“He’s one of the faculty that students seek out after they’ve left, both for advice and to share how he’s impacted their lives,” Barton said.
Delgado Helleseter lives in Ventura with his wife, who has two grown children.
In his spare time, he watches a lot of baseball and basketball.
Like virtually every other Dodgers fan, Delgado Helleseter was dejected to see them get swept by the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series.
“That was a very, very tough series to watch,” he said. “Every game was painful.”
Delgado Helleseter wants to stay in his field as long as possible.
“Being an economist is the only thing I have ever known how to do,” he said.
“If I am able to remain healthy and current within my field long enough, I hope to continue practicing what I do for many more years,” Delgado Helleseter said.
• This is one in an ongoing series of Business Times profiles of Central Coast economists.
