<head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;
charset=UTF-8"> <title>The Home Page of David
Wildasin</title>
Serious: Research Journals Contact
Not Too Serious: Places in California
Not Serious At All: Economics Humor
The Home Page of David Wildasin
Welcome!
This page and its companions provide information about my
professional activities and interests. Unfortunately, I have been
remiss in keeping it up to date. I will try to remedy that
defect, gradually, in the coming months.
Current Activities
Presently, I am an emeritus faculty member at the University of Kentucky, having
retired in 2017. My research (and, previously, my teaching)
interests have generally been in the areas of public and
urban/regional/international economics. I have an office in
the Department
of Economics at Kentucky, where I have been able (at least
pre-COVID) to interact regularly with my colleagues there.
Someone once said that faculty don't retire, they just go on
extended sabbaticals. In that spirit, I have tried to build up
some human capital, spending much time as an (informal) student
sitting in classes in Mathematics, Electrical and Mechanical
Engineering, and in Statistics. I am most grateful to my
colleagues (and fellow students) in these departments for welcoming
me into their classes, from which I have learned a great deal.
In the short term, my studies have taken me somewhat away from
writing papers for publication. I do, however, continue to
pursue research questions in economics, for instance in a recent
paper with David Agrawal on "Technology and Tax
Systems". In the longer term, I hope to follow up on
some of my previous research projects and to initiate several new
ones.
Past Employment
I have been affiliated with the University of Kentucky since 2000,
with a primary appointment in the Martin School of Public Policy,
where I held the Endowed Chair in Public Finance, and a secondary
appointment in the Department of Economics. Prior to
retirement, I taught classes for graduate students in the M-School
and also for students in the Ph.D. program in Economics. I
also served as a director and a research fellow of the Institute for
Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations. IFIR working
papers remain online for those who may wish to consult them.
Before coming to Kentucky, I taught in economics departments at Vanderbilt University
(1993--2000), Indiana
University (1979--1993) and at the University of Illinois at Chicago
(1976--1979, my first job out of graduate school). I have
spent one-year visits at the Department
of Economics at Queen's University in Canada, at the Center for Operations Research
and Econometrics (CORE) at the Universite Catholique de
Louvain in Belgium, and at the World
Bank. In addition, I have visited and lectured at a number of
other universities and
research institutes for shorter periods of time.
My cv
lists my work experience, publications, and other professional
activities in considerable detail, although it is now rather in
need of updating. A brief cv
(everything I could fit onto two pages) offers a more concise
summary of my professional background.
Research
Professional journals are the principal outlet for my academic
research. I have compiled a sample of published and forthcoming
papers for those who might find them useful. I expect to
post some working papers in the near future.
I have also authored, co-authored, or edited several books.
These include Public Sector
Economics (2nd. ed.) with Robin Boadway and Urban
Public Finance (which was republished as part of an
encyclopedia on Regional
and Urban Economics edited by Richard Arnott). Fiscal
Aspects
of Evolving Federations (1997), for which I served
as editor, contains the proceedings of a conference on that
theme. It includes several papers (some in significantly
revised form) that previously appeared in a special issue of International
Tax
and Public Finance as well as several new essays not
published elsewhere.
Research Affiliations
I am a research fellow at the following institutions:
CESifo in Munich, Germany.
CESifo sponsors many academic research activities in economics,
including publications, conferences, and lecture series, and is
also very active in bringing academic economics into contact with
the world of policy making.
IZA, the Institute for the
Study of Labor (in German, Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der
Arbeit), in Bonn. The IZA web site is an excellent source for
information about current research in labor economics, including,
in particular, studies of European labor markets, international
migration, and related policy issues.
The Oxford University
Centre for Business Taxation, a research unit that sponsors
scholarly research and public policy analysis on the taxation of
business.
Journals
I have served in an editorial capacity for many professional
journals. At present, I am on editorial boards for these
journals:
CESifo Economic Studies
Of note: Special issue of CESifo Economic
Studies on "New Directions
in Fiscal Federalism," (2008).
International
Tax and Public Finance
National Tax Journal
Regional
Science and Urban Economics
Review
of International Economics
I highly recommend these journals to readers and to prospective
authors!
Places in California
"Wildasin" is an uncommon name, at least in most regions of the
US. This can be a drawback when people struggle to pronounce it.
On the other hand, it's much better than "Smith" for
ego-surfing. While doing so, I found some (vanished or
vanishing) places in California:
The Wildasin Hotel at Mammoth
Mountain, CA. Established in 1905, the hotel is now
defunct. Happily, though, the beautiful mountain is still
there.
Wildasin, California (33
deg 59'20"N, 118 deg 17'57"W). Situated in Los
Angeles, near the intersection of W. Slauson Ave. and S. Normandie
Ave. According to a concise history, a
farm was established there in 1884, from which the toponym
derives. Until recently, there was a train station there, where one
could admire not only the passing trains but some vibrant murals
on the nearby warehouses. It now seems that new development
happening along Slauson is wiping out the train line,
the warehouses along it,
and, of course, the accompanying
art.
Economics Humor
Many have heard the old line about economists being people who work
with numbers but who don't have the personality to be accountants.
(Although the accountants might not appreciate it, that's actually a
joke.) Lest the world form the mistaken impression that economists
are dull folk, I have compiled a little collection of economics humor,
some of which, to my knowledge, can be found nowhere else in the
world! (That's putting a positive spin on it.)
Contact Information:
David E. Wildasin
Department of Economics
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY 40506-0027
USA
Tel.: +1 859 257 2456
Please note: I am transitioning my email away from my old
address, which was once posted here for all to see. To
contact me by email, please use my University of Kentucky address,
which I would like to represent in a manner that is not easily
harvested by a bot. I'll try it this way:
david.wildasin
(AT)
uky.EEE DEE YOU
