Thomas J. Nechyba, Professor of Economics and Public Policy

Thomas J. Nechyba has been a professor of economics and public policy studies at Duke University since 2003. He is also currently a research associate for the National Bureau of Economic Research and a research fellow at the Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, Germany. In the past, he has also held teaching positions at Stanford University and at the Fundacao Getulio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Professor Nechyba earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Rochester in 1994. Professor Nechyba specializes in public finance, fiscal federalism, and the economics of education. His research focuses specifically on public policy in relation to disadvantaged families, the function of local governments, and primary and secondary education. He recently completed a project funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation entitled, “An Empirical Investigation of Peer Effects in Schools and of Household Responses to School Policy Changes.” He has also received grants from the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy, the Spencer Foundation, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, the Hoover Institution, and others. Professor Nechyba’s papers and articles have appeared in the Journal of Economic Perspectives, the Handbook of Economics and Education, Helping Children Left Behind, the Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs, Economic Theory, and the Journal of Political Economy, to name a few. He has also written two books, Microeconomics and The Effect of Family and Community Resources on Education Outcomes with Dina Older-Aguilar and Patrick McEwan. He has also presented his research and ideas throughout the world. He has been invited to seminars at such universities as Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, UC Berkeley, Brown, and many others. He has also given talks at conferences for the Econometric Society, the Institute of Humane Studies, the American Economic Association, and more. Along with his teaching and research responsibilities, Professor Nechyba holds several other professional positions. He serves on the editorial boards for Regional Science and Urban Economics, International Tax and Public Finance, and The B.E. Journals in Economic Analysis and Policy. He has been on the graduate thesis committees for a number of his graduate students, and has been advisor for many of his undergraduate students. For his excellence achieved in academia, Professor Nechyba has received such awards as the Kenneth G. Elzinga Distinguished Teaching Award from the Southern Economics Association in 2004 and the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching from Stanford University in 1995-96.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	213 Social Sciences
Office Phone:	(919) 660-1815
Email Address:
Web Page:	http://www.econ.duke.edu/~nechyba/

Office Hours:

By Appointment

Education:

PhD	University of Rochester	1994
BA	University of Florida	1989

Specialties:

Public Finance
Microeconomics

Research Interests: Public Finance, Economics of Education, Fiscal Federalism

Professor Nechyba conducts his research within the fields of public finance, fiscal federalism, and the economics of education. His studies tend toward the investigation of function within local governments, public policy issues concerning disadvantaged families, and the economics behind primary and secondary education. He received funding for one of his latest projects, “An Empirical Investigation of Peer Effects in Schools and of Household Responses to School Policy Changes,” from a National Science Foundation grant. He also received support from the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy for his work, “Urban Sprawl;” from the Spencer Foundation for his study on, “The Role of Peers, Parental Choices, and Neighborhoods;” from the New Zealand Ministry of Education for a study on, “The Impact of Family and Community Resources on Education Outcomes;” and the Hoover Institution for the study, “The Implications of New Federalism.” He also received monetary support from the National Academy of Sciences for his investigation of the fiscal impact of immigrants, and from the Center for Economic Policy Research for various projects concerning education and welfare policy. In addition to his individual research pursuits, Professor Nechyba is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Keywords:

Economics of Education • Local Public Finance • Fiscal Federalism

Curriculum Vitae

Current Ph.D. Students   (Former Students)

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

1. T. Nechyba, School Finance, Spatial Income Segregation and the Nature of Communities, Journal of Urban Economics, vol. 54 no. 1 (July, 2003), pp. 61-88
2. T. Nechyba, What Can be (and What Has Been) Learned from General Equilibrium Simulation Models of School Finance, National Tax Journal, vol. LVI no. 2 (June, 2003), pp. 387-414
3. T. Nechyba, Public School Finance and Urban School Policy: General Versus Partial Equilibrium Analysis, Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs (Fall, 2003), pp. 139-170
4. T. Nechyba, Centralization, Fiscal Federalism and Private School Attendance, International Economic Review, vol. 44 no. 1 (February, 2003), pp. 179-204
5. T. Nechyba, Social Approval, Values and AFDC: A Re-Examination of the Illegitimacy Debate, Journal of Political Economy (June, 2001), pp. 638-72
6. T. Nechyba, Mobility, Targeting and Private School Vouchers, American Economic Review, vol. 90 no. 1 (March, 2000), pp. 130-46
7. T. Nechyba, School Finance Induced Migration Patterns: The Impact of Private School Vouchers, Journal of Public Economic Theory, vol. 1 no. 1 (1999), pp. 5-50
8. T. Nechyba, Local Property and State Income Taxes: The Role of Interjurisdictional Competition and Collusion, Journal of Political Economy, vol. 105 no. 2 (1997), pp. 351-384
9. T. Nechyba, Existence of Equilibrium and Stratification in Local and Hierarchical Public Goods Economies with Property Taxes and Voting, Economic Theory, vol. 10 (1997), pp. 277-304

Conferences Organized

• 2007 Public Economic Theory Conference, Organizing Committee, 2006-2007  
• Econometric Society Summer Meetings, Program Committee, 2006-2007  
• 4th International Conference on Public Economic Theory, Chair, Program Committee and Host, June 2003  
• International Institute of Public Finance, Scientific Organizing Committee, Summer 2002  
• Interdisciplinary Conference on Education and Incentives, Organizer and Chair, Program Committee, December 2001  
• Week of Seminars on "Competition in Urban Economics", Organizer, July 13-17, 1998  
• Week of Seminars on "Intergovernmental Competition in Public Economics", Organizer, July 1998  
• Week of Seminars on "Intergovernmental Competition in Public Economics", Organizer, August 1--15, 1997