Areas of Research
Theoretical and Applied Work on Networks
The television show Six Degrees focuses on six people who don’t know each other but whose lives are interconnected, thus forming a network. Whether a network is people, businesses or computers, the means of modeling their underlying connections are similar. Dr. Ball and Dr. Gilles work with faculty and students the Electrical and Computer Engineering to design and implement cognitive radio networks.
Development Economics
Solving the economic problems of less developed countries is always an important area of study. Dr. Salehi is an expert in the problems of the Middle East while Dr. D. Yang focuses his work on China. Both faculty members teach undergraduate courses in their area of specialty as well as doing outreach in the geographical areas they study.
Applied Econometrics
Econometrics is the development and application of techniques used to study economic data. Dr. Ashley and Dr. Spanos focus on developing appropriate models and ways to test for model misspecification, while Dr. Ge, Dr. Macieira and Dr. J. Yang concentrate on using econometric techniques to look at available data and answer applied economic questions about jobs, education, competition between firms, etc.Public Policy
Public economics is the application of the principles of economics (where individuals are assumed to maximize their individual utility and firms are assumed to maximize profits) to the questions of what situations might call for governmental action, the form that action might take, the ways of financing such actions, the consequences of such actions and of the taxes and other measures that finance them, and the circumstances that may lead individuals to act in public-spirited ways that obviate the need for governmental action.