Expertise
My research specializations are public finance/public welfare and economic development. In my work, I incorporate concepts and models from these fields without necessarily being limited by them as I stretch and extend them into innovative, spatially oriented applications. More specifically, I consider myself a “regional economist,” which means that I am part of a body of academic scholars from a multitude of disciplines (economics, agricultural economics, public policy, urban planning, civil engineering, finance, and demography among others) who all acknowledge a central tenet: space matters. As such, I pursue research that incorporates a spatial dimension, whether that is its focus by examining an economic concept at a particular spatial level (such as at the city, state, or regional level) or through the inclusion of space as a necessary variable in my economic analysis. This approach to public finance/public welfare and economic development is crucial to addressing key issues of locational heterogeneity.