Development Economicswo-pronged approach to the issues surrounding the building of economies and economic resources. On the domestic front, the regional and community economics faculty deals primarily with the formation of human, physical, and social capital across geographic regions. They study patterns of economic activity and their effect on work, government, entrepreneurship, and the development of individual and business economic conditions. Their work supports policy objectives aimed at improving sustainability of local and regional economies, reducing poverty, and measuring effects of government policies across regions. The department’s Rural Finance Program is recognized as an international leader for its unique program analyzing rural financial markets. For three decades this group has received several million dollars in grants to provide research and technical assistance about access to financial services. They are especially known for work with difficult-to-reach borrowers–small farmers, microenterprises and extremely poor people in developing countries or economies recovering from economic or political shifts. Faculty, research assistants and graduate students have worked on projects in nearly every country imaginable. This unique blend of domestic and foreign development economics attracts many graduate students and visiting scholars to the department. Top students go on to become leading government officials and development economists around the world. Types of development economics issues being studied include:
|