About the Economics Department @ Rensselaer

Our world-class faculty focus their research in two main areas. In ecological economics, we analyze how the global economy and local economies can and will change in the future, reflecting social values and economic policies for dealing with global environmental change. In the economics of technological change, we probe the forces driving technology creation and diffusion, the transfer of technology from universities to firms, the evolution of industries, technology evaluation and development, and hence the well-being of the world's people. In both areas, we pay close attention to empirical facts, ensuring relevance for our models and analyses.

Students will derive several benefits from the department's courses. In a leading technological university, budding engineers and scientists can easily gain great skill in their field yet lack the knowledge to understand and manage, in their companies and in the broader economy, the critical processes of technological change and competition. Similarly, all of us need to understand and deal with the environmental and social consequences associated with global economic development and growth based on our values and the choice, as a society, of our future policies. Our courses in economics impart both general knowledge - of microeconomic and macroeconomic processes and of tools for economic analysis - and specific knowledge relevant to informed decision-making about the environment and R&D processes. A deeper understanding of economics helps you move from being buffeted by forces outside your control to understanding and influencing the forces around you.

Ph.D. students have the opportunity to work closely with distinguished faculty. We maintain a small program in which students are expected to carry out original research and are provided with the skills and attention to become leaders. Our Ph.D. students often publish several papers before graduation, and students' papers have appeared in important journals such as Ecological Economics, the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization and the Economic Journal. Our Ph.D. program in Ecological Economics was the first to be established anywhere in the world, and it provides an opportunity to leap to the state of the art in this crucial field.

Prof. Faye Duchin is a leading scholar in ecological economics, industrial ecology, and input-output economics. Her current research is about economic development and international trade, with a focus on technological change, household lifestyles, and the environment. She is the author of four books and numerous papers, editor of several interdisciplinary journals, President of the International Input-Output Association, and a member of the Science Advisory Board of the Potsdam Center for Climate Impact Research. Prof. John Gowdy is an expert in ecological and evolutionary economics, with work spanning input-output analysis, welfare theory and environmental valuation, and economic anthropology. He has authored or edited eight books and published over 120 academic articles. Past president of the U.S. Society for Ecological Economics, he serves on the editorial boards of 9 journals including Ecological Economics, Environment and Planning C, Environmental Ethics, and Structural Change and Economic Dynamics. He has been a Fulbright Scholar in Vienna, Austria, and recently held a Leverhulme Visiting Professorship at Leeds University, United Kingdom.

Prof. David Stern uses advanced time series econometrics and other methods to investigate global climate change and its impacts, model resource degradation and technological change, and study the links between energy use, pollution, and economic development. He has been active in organizing professional conferences, is associate editor of the journal Ecological Economics, and has authored over fifty publications.

Prof. Donald Siegel is department chair and a leader in productivity, econometric analysis of firms, R&D project performance, and university-industry technology transfer. He edits the Journal of Technology Transfer, is co-editor or board member of other journals, and his work has appeared in the field's leading journals including the American Economic Review, Economic Journal, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Financial Economics, and Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. During his career Prof. James Adams has published in the economics of technological change, labor economics, and public economics. His recent work concentrates on technological change and examines knowledge spillovers among firms, among universities and firms, and among universities. His current work also explores research productivity, the speed of diffusion of R&D, boundaries on the spread of R&D, the nature of contractual relationships between public and private R&D performers, and team production in academic and industrial research. Since 1995 he has been a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research in Productivity. He has visited at the University of Chicago, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the U.S. Bureau of the Census. His work has appeared in a variety of journals, including the Journal of Political Economy, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of Law and Economics, the RAND Journal of Economics, the Journal of Labor Economics, the Journal of Public Economics, the Journal of Economic Geography, and Research Policy.

Prof. Kenneth Simons is internationally respected for research on industry competitive dynamics and technological change. His work has appeared in journals including the Journal of Political Economy, Strategic Management Journal, the International Journal of Industrial Organization, Explorations in Economic History, Industrial and Corporate Change, and Public Choice. He has organized five conferences related to industrial organization economics and was previously Chairman of the UK's Network of Industrial Economists and teaches graduate (and some undergraduate) courses in quantitative analysis, microeconomics, and econometrics. Prof. Don Vitaliano is an expert in public sector economics, including the efficiency of government activities. His work has important consequences ranging over issues such as the treatment of radon in drinking water and policy regarding nursing homes and the state's Department of Transportation.

Prof. John Heim and Dr. Robert "Bob" Jones, have a wealth of expertise on issues including applied econometrics, macroeconomics, finance, and regional economic development. Dr. Heim published over 40 papers, reports and monographs early in his career and subsequently went on to serve as an educational finance expert on the staff of a New York State Governor, a fiscal advisor to the Minority Leader of the NYS Senate, and Commissioner of Finance for the city of Buffalo, NY. He also served in various subcabinet positions in NYS government and founded and for several years headed a computer software firm specializing in statistical software. Dr. Jones, in addition to teaching, is president of a successful economic consulting firm and served on the staff of the Federal Reserve System for several years.

Professor Emeritus Paul Hohenberg, a widely published economic historian, continues to participate in the activities of the department.