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Thomas J. Nechyba, Professor of Economics  

Office Location: 318 Social Science Building, Box 90097, Durham, NC 27708
Duke Box: 90097
Email Address: nechyba@duke.edu
Web Page: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2smnQ7YzDgOUHNBQ3k1R254cTg

Areas of Expertise

  • Education
    • Education Finance
    • Racial/Ethnic Inequalities & Segregation
    • School Choice/Vouchers
  • Public Finance, Education Finance

Education:
Ph.D., University of Rochester, 1994
B.A., University of Florida, 1989

Research Description: Research: Public economics, particularly primary and secondary education; federalism and the function of local governments; public policy issues relating to disadvantaged families

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

  1. Nechyba, T. "School finance, spatial income segregation, and the nature of communities." Journal of Urban Economics 54.1 (January, 2003): 61-88. [doi]  [abs]
  2. Nechyba, T. "Public School Finance and Urban School Policy: General Versus Partial Equilibrium Analysis." Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs (Fall, 2003): 139-170.
  3. Nechyba, TJ. "Centralization, fiscal federalism, and private school attendance." International Economic Review 44.1 (February, 2003): 179-204. [doi]  [abs]
  4. Nechyba, TJ. "Mobility, targeting, and private-school vouchers." American Economic Review 90.1 (January, 2000): 130-146. [repository], [doi]  [abs]
  5. Nechyba, TJ. "School finance induced migration and stratification patterns: The impact of private school vouchers." Journal of Public Economic Theory 1.1 (December, 1999): 5-50. [doi]  [abs]
  6. Nechyba, TJ. "Local property and state income taxes: The role of interjurisdictional competition and collusion." Journal of Political Economy 105.2 (January, 1997): 351-384. [repository], [doi]  [abs]
  7. Nechyba, TJ. "Existence of equilibrium and stratification in local and hierarchical Tiebout economies with property taxes and voting." Economic Theory 10.2 (January, 1997): 277-304. [doi]  [abs]

Curriculum Vitae

Highlight:
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.

Bio/Profile
Professor Nechyba, who received his PhD from the University of Rochester in 1994, joined the Duke faculty in 1999 after spending five years on the faculty at Stanford University. He has lectured as a Visiting Professor at the Fundacao Getulio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro and the Center for Economic Studies at the University of Munich, and he held the year-long National Fellowship at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford in 1998/99.

Professor Nechyba is currently a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and serves as Associate Editor for the American Economic Review, International Tax and Public Finance, and The BE Journals of Economic Analysis and Policy. He has previously served as Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Economics at Duke and is currently Department Chair.

His research, which has been funded by agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the Spencer Foundation, lies in the field of public economics, with particular focus on primary and secondary education, federalism and the functioning of local governments, as well as public policy issues relating to disadvantaged families.

Current Ph.D. Students   (Former Students)

Thomas J. Nechyba