About the Institute

The Applied Economics Research Institute – called the Institute for short – is housed in the Department of Economics, and most faculty members are Research Associates of the Institute. They specialize in such diverse areas as econometrics, labor economics, human resources, benefit-cost analysis, environmental issues, regional analysis, and forecasting. Hence, the range of studies the Institute is capable of doing extends beyond the usual economic impact analyses.

The Institute also provides services to the community. These consist primarily of building and maintaining a comprehensive economic database for the Greater Cincinnati region, as well as assisting public and private planning and development oriented organizations with data collection and analysis. The Institute will facilitate access to data collected by other private and public agencies, and it will add its own original data obtained from newly designed surveys. A long term goal is to construct its own regional econometric model and develop the ability to produce its own periodic forecasts of the regional economy.

The Institue also has a strong educational role in the Department by providing hands-on training for graduate students in Applied Economics. Students learn how to access data, how to prepare them for presentation, how to do economic impact studies, and how to make a presentation. The Institute facilitates off-campus internships with local and regional firms and government agencies engaged in economics research and it will offer in-house internships to students with an interest in local and regional data analysis.

The Institute is a non-profit operation that supports its activities through research grants, contract research, contributions, and endowments.