About Us - Applied Economics
The mission of the Center for Applied Economics is to help advance the economic development of the state and region by offering economic analysis and economic education relevant for policy makers, community leaders, and other interested citizens.
Strategic ScopeOperating out of the School of Business at KU, the Center will strive to fulfill its mission by engaging in three basic types of activities:
- Generating and transmitting ideas about how market mechanics can solve problems.
- Editing and brokering the ideas of others
- Developing the economic thinking skills of the citizenry across the region
Strategic PlanEconomic Research and Policy AnalysisThe Center will conduct and promote basic research on economic development, and use that research to engage in region-specific policy analysis. The Center will support original research aimed at identifying factors or policies that propel economic growth. It will also focus on synthesizing existing research to make the knowledge understandable to and relevant for decision-makers in the business and public policy communities. In brief, the Center is designed to add value in the following ways:
- Synthesize: specializing in combining existing research activity with practical policies.
- Inform: generating original research using various experts throughout the country.
- Solidify: turn research into consensus on what policies work most effectively to promote prosperity.
Economics Education
The Center provides continuing education to working professionals using seminars, workshops and other approaches that accommodate the compressed time frame required to serve such professionals. The Center will experiment with different content formats to address the requirements of different professional groups.
The Center also provides forums for experiential learning for both working professionals and traditional students. Economics concerns the study of human action. Educators can forcefully demonstrate the axioms of economics by using role-playing exercises and experimental economics methods. The Center will use exercises and experiments that focus on conveying the importance of the relation between economic development and different "rules of the game".
