'''Susan Randolph''' is an American development economist, associate professor emerita of economics at the University of Connecticut, and co-founder of the Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI). She is known for her work on the measurement of economic, social and cultural rights, particularly as a co-creator of the Social and Economic Rights Fulfillment (SERF) Index. In 2019, she was a co-recipient of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order for her book ''Fulfilling Social and Economic Rights'', co-authored with Sakiko Fukuda-Parr and Terra Lawson-Remer.<ref name="grawemeyer">{{cite web |title=Human rights index wins Grawemeyer world order award |url=http://grawemeyer.org/human-rights-index-wins-grawemeyer-world-order-award/ |publisher=Grawemeyer Awards, University of Louisville |access-date=27 February 2026}}</ref>
== Education ==
Randolph received her Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Oregon in 1971. She subsequently earned both her Master of Arts and PhD in economics from Cornell University, completing the latter in 1983.<ref name="ucondept">{{cite web |title=Susan Randolph |url=https://econ.uconn.edu/person/susan-randolph/ |publisher=Department of Economics, University of Connecticut |access-date=27 February 2026}}</ref>
== Career == === Early career === Prior to joining the University of Connecticut, Randolph worked for four years as head of the Program Development division at Türkiye Kalkınma Vakfı (Turkey Development Foundation), a grassroots development organisation that assists poor, landless households in establishing self-sustaining economic enterprises.<ref name="gladstein">{{cite web |title=Susan Randolph |url=https://humanrights.uconn.edu/person/susan-randolph/ |publisher=Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, University of Connecticut |access-date=27 February 2026}}</ref>
=== University of Connecticut === Randolph joined the University of Connecticut in 1984 as a member of the Department of Economics, where she also held an appointment in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.<ref name="theorg">{{cite web |title=Susan Randolph |url=https://theorg.com/org/human-rights-measurement-initiative/org-chart/susan-randolph |publisher=The Org |access-date=27 February 2026}}</ref> She served as a faculty affiliate of the university's Human Rights Institute, El Instituto: Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies, the India Studies Program, and the Asian and Asian American Studies Institutes. She co-chaired the Human Rights Institute's Economic and Social Rights Research Program from 2014 to 2019 and served on the Gladstein Committee.<ref name="ucondept" /> She holds the title of associate professor emerita.<ref name="uconntoday">{{cite web |title=UConn Professor Recognized for 'Improving World Order' |url=https://today.uconn.edu/2018/12/uconn-professor-recognized-improving-world-order/ |publisher=UConn Today |date=4 December 2018 |access-date=27 February 2026}}</ref>
Randolph has also served as a short-term consultant to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Bank, and the United States Agency for International Development.<ref name="ucondept" />
== Research ==
Randolph's research spans a range of issues in development economics, including poverty, inequality, food security, and economic and social rights, at both country and cross-national levels. Her work on marginal malnutrition and food security has focused on Mexico, Senegal, and India, while her broader development policy research has examined countries including Malaysia, Sudan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Nepal, and Indonesia.<ref name="ucondept" />
=== SERF Index === Randolph's most significant scholarly contribution is the development of the Social and Economic Rights Fulfillment (SERF) Index, created in collaboration with Sakiko Fukuda-Parr and Terra Lawson-Remer. The SERF Index provides a quantitative tool for measuring the extent to which countries fulfil their obligations to progressively realise economic, social and cultural rights - specifically the rights to food, health, education, housing, and work. The methodology employs an "Achievement Possibilities Frontier" approach, which benchmarks a country's performance against what countries at similar income levels have achieved, thereby enabling comparisons across differently situated nations.<ref name="serfabout">{{cite web |title=About Us |url=https://serfindex.uconn.edu/about-us/ |publisher=SERF Index Project, University of Connecticut |access-date=27 February 2026}}</ref>
The conceptual and methodological underpinnings of the SERF Index were first published in two articles in the ''Journal of Human Rights'': "Measuring the Progressive Realization of Human Rights Obligations: An Index of Economic and Social Rights Fulfillment" (2009) and "Economic and Social Rights Fulfillment Index: Country Scores and Rankings" (2010).<ref name="jhrarticles">{{cite journal |last1=Fukuda-Parr |first1=Sakiko |last2=Lawson-Remer |first2=Terra |last3=Randolph |first3=Susan |title=Measuring the Progressive Realization of Human Rights Obligations: An Index of Economic and Social Rights Fulfillment |journal=Journal of Human Rights |volume=8 |issue=3 |year=2009 |pages=195–221}}</ref> The SERF Index has since been adopted by the Human Rights Measurement Initiative as its income-adjusted measure of country economic and social rights performance and has been incorporated into the World Bank's Sovereign ESG Data Portal.<ref name="worldbank">{{cite web |title=The Economic and Social Rights Performance Score |url=https://esgdata.worldbank.org/ds/newdata-esr |publisher=World Bank |access-date=27 February 2026}}</ref>
=== Human Rights Measurement Initiative ===
Randolph is a co-founder of the Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI), an independent global research collaboration that produces cross-nationally comparable data on the human rights performance of countries. At HRMI, she serves as the economic and social rights metrics lead.<ref name="hrmiresearch">{{cite web |title=Research credentials |url=https://humanrightsmeasurement.org/research-credentials/ |publisher=Human Rights Measurement Initiative |access-date=27 February 2026}}</ref> HRMI, which is hosted by Motu Economic and Public Policy Research in New Zealand, publishes data covering both economic and social rights and civil and political rights through its data visualisation platform, rightstracker.org.<ref name="hrmipubs">{{cite web |title=Publications |url=https://humanrightsmeasurement.org/publications/ |publisher=Human Rights Measurement Initiative |access-date=27 February 2026}}</ref>
== Selected publications == * {{cite book |last1=Fukuda-Parr |first1=Sakiko |last2=Lawson-Remer |first2=Terra |last3=Randolph |first3=Susan |title=Fulfilling Social and Economic Rights |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-19-973551-8}} * {{cite journal |last1=Brook |first1=Anne-Marie |last2=Clay |first2=K. Chad |last3=Randolph |first3=Susan |title=Human rights data for everyone: Introducing the Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI) |journal=Journal of Human Rights |volume=19 |issue=3 |year=2020 |pages=67–82}} * {{cite journal |last1=Kaletski |first1=Elizabeth |last2=Minkler |first2=Lanse |last3=Prakash |first3=Nishith |last4=Randolph |first4=Susan |title=Does constitutionalizing economic and social rights promote their fulfillment? |journal=Journal of Human Rights |volume=15 |issue=4 |year=2016 |pages=433–453 |doi=10.1080/14754835.2015.1103159}} * {{cite journal |last1=Randolph |first1=Susan |last2=Guyer |first2=Patrick |title=Tracking the Historical Evolution of States' Compliance with their Economic and Social Rights Obligations of Result – Insights from the Historical SERF Index |journal=Nordic Journal of Human Rights |volume=30 |issue=3 |year=2016}}
== Awards and honours == * 2019 – Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order, University of Louisville (shared with Sakiko Fukuda-Parr and Terra Lawson-Remer)<ref name="grawemeyer" />
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [https://econ.uconn.edu/person/susan-randolph/ Faculty page] at the University of Connecticut * [https://serfindex.uconn.edu/ SERF Index Project] * [https://humanrightsmeasurement.org/ Human Rights Measurement Initiative]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Randolph, Susan}} Category:Living people Category:American economists Category:American women economists Category:Development economists Category:University of Oregon alumni Category:Cornell University alumni Category:University of Connecticut faculty Category:Year of birth missing (living people)