Expertise: labor economics, public finance and urban economics

Matthew Freedman, economics associate professor, studies how cities work. His research focuses on topics like the causes and consequences of segregation in low-income and urban housing developments, as well as what local governments can – and should – do to encourage economic activity within cities.

He’s currently looking at how a variety of federal, state and local programs designed to encourage affordable housing development or commercial investment in those neighborhoods affect those neighborhoods directly. He’s analyzing how these affects play out in employment for low income workers, property values, commuting patterns and traffic in the broader area,  and criminal activity in the local community. He’s also studied environmental regulations and air quality benefactors.

His work, which has been funded by the USDA, has been published in the Journal of Urban Economics, Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, Journal of Human Resources, Review of Economics and Statistics, Applied Economics, and Industrial Relations, to name a few.

He joined the UCI faculty in fall. He held previous academic appointments at Cornell University (2007-13) and Drexel University (2014-16) and was a visiting professor at both Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He earned his undergraduate degrees in economics and English from Emory University and his master’s and doctorate in economics from the University of Maryland-College Park.

Freedman joined UCI for its strong tradition in urban, labor and public economics and its strong emphasis on policy relevant research. He’s one of several faculty involved with UCI’s new Economic Self Sufficiency Policy Research Institute and he’s excited about the school’s local access to census data for qualified researchers via the California Census Research Data Center.

 

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