Regional and urban economics

Regional and urban economics examines issues related to the intersection of economics with geography and public policy. Central to this field is the study of economic forces related to the development and growth of urban and rural areas.

Specific topics include:

• Sub-national economic growth and development
• Location choices of utility-maximizing households and profit-maximizing firms
• Spatial differences in incomes, unemployment, and individual well-being
• Advantages and disadvantages of spatially concentrating economic activity
• Transportation of goods, people, and ideas across areas
• Land use, land prices, and housing markets
• State and local public finance and governance

We were recently ranked among the Top 20 institutions in the world based on publications in top regional science journals. We also ranked sixth in the United States, and Drs. Rickman and Winters both ranked among the Top 10 individual regional science researchers in the U.S. Dr. Rickman teaches our Ph.D. course in Regional Economics and Dr. Winters teaches the Ph.D. course in Urban Economics.

 

Development economics

Common topics examined include:

• Schooling, child labor and human capital development
• Health and nutrition
• Employment, entrepreneurship, wages, and income
• Marriage, fertility, and gender roles
• Food security, poverty and inequality
• Discrimination and affirmative actions
• Capital market constraints
• Migration and remittances
• Financial markets

International economics

International economics includes topics related to international finance and international trade. Research in international economics can be based on microeconomic or macroeconomic methods, depending on the question under consideration. Theoretical, empirical and simulation techniques are often used.

International Finance:

International finance studies topics in open economy macroeconomics. It uses theories based on micro-foundations and intertemporal approach to examine empirical regularities in international asset markets. Specific topics include international business cycles, exchange rate fluctuations, macroeconomic policy in emerging markets, and sovereign debts.

International Trade:

In the international trade specialization, we look at how trade in goods and services across economies is affected by different factors including international trade policies, trade agreements, exchange rate volatility or even by apparently non-trade changes like environmental rules, labor laws or institutional changes. Conversely, we recognize that trade itself has an impact on various economic outcomes like income and employment, inequality, environmental or other developmental indicators of an economy. Together the forces that affect trade or are affected by trade provide a broad range of topics for research in international trade.

Dynamic macro and macroeconometrics

Dynamic Macroeconomics and Macroeconometrics cover a range of topics to address issues in Macroeconomics, Monetary Economics, International Macroeconomics, and Financial Economics with emphasis on dynamic models in Macroeconomics, and linear and nonlinear models accompanying with nonstationary issues of Macroeconomic and Financial Time Series.

Research in this field is based on theoretical and empirical models of macroeconomic policy, or time series econometrics methods, depending on the questions under consideration. DSGE models, empirical and simulation techniques are often used.

 

Faculty working in this area include Drs. Adkins, Shen, and Kim.