Meet the Speakers

Mark Skidmore, Ph.D.

Professor of Economics and Morris Chair

Mark Skidmore is Professor of Economics and Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University, where he holds the Morris Chair in State and Local Government Finance and Policy. He received his doctorate in economics from the University of Colorado in 1994, and his bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Washington in 1987. He served as co-editor of the Journal of Urban Affairs from 2011-2021 and is currently a member of the editorial boards of State and Local Government Review and Economics of Disasters and Climate Change. He is a Distinguished Scholar at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and a Distinguished Fellow of the Mid-continent Regional Science Association. He also served as Director of the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development from 2016-2020. In 2017, Professor Skidmore was named Solari Hero of the Year.

Professor Skidmore has expertise in regional economics, public finance and policy, economics of disasters, and health. Current interests include policy responses to health challenges, state and local government tax and spending policies, transparency in government operations/finances, the interrelationship between public sector decisions and economic activity, and the economics of disasters. His work has been funded by the Fulbright Program, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, National Science Foundation, US Department of Health and Human Services, Urban Institute, US Department of Agriculture and the US Agency for International Development. He has published more than 85 articles in peer reviewed journals and edited three books.

His research has appeared in diverse set of professional journals such as Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy, and Society, Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Economic Inquiry, Economics Letters, Health Promotion and Practice, International Journal of Regional Science, Journal of Affective Disorders, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Journal of Regional Science, Journal of Urban Economics, Land Economics, National Tax Journal, Pension Economics and Finance, Real Estate Economics, Public Choice, Regional Science and Urban Economics, and Weather, Climate and Society, among others. His work has been cited in prominent news outlets such as the BBC, Boston Globe, CNNMoney, Economist, Forbes, MSNBC, Newsweek, New Yorker, New York Times, PBS News Hour, Reuters, and the Washington Post. More information about his research activities are available at http://www.afre.msu.edu/people/skidmore.