Bio and Relevant Links for Rob Wassmer
Rob Wassmer is a professor in the Graduate Program in Public Policy and Administration at California State University, Sacramento (CSUS). Dr. Wassmer teaches courses in applied microeconomics and public policy, urban economics and public policy, benefit/cost analysis, regression analysis, and state and local public finance. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan (1983); a Master of Arts in Applied Economics from Binghamton University in New York (1985); and a Ph.D. in Economics from Michigan State University (1989). Before moving to Sacramento in 1995 he worked summers at the State of Michigan's Departments of Commerce and Treasury, was a visiting lecturer in economics at Eastern Michigan University, and held the position of assistant professor in economics and research associate with the College of Urban, Labor, and Metropolitan Affairs at Wayne State University in Detroit. Between 2000 and 2002, Rob served as a visiting consultant to the California Senate Office of Research. His topics of research there included urban sprawl, fiscalization of land use, high poverty/high performing K-12 public schools, community college transfer rates, and higher education accountability. For 2000-01 he received the CSUS President's Award for Research and Creative Activity. Professor Wassmer was also the past (1997-2001) coordinator of the system-wide California State University Faculty Research Fellows Program that is managed by the Center for California Studies at Sacramento State. His research on topics relating to state/local public finance and urban economic development has appeared in the Economics of Education Review, Government and Policy, Land Economics, Urban Studies, Public Finance Review, Public Choice, Public Budgeting and Finance, Regional Science and Urban Economics, National Tax Journal, Journal of Housing Economics, Economic Development Quarterly, and the Journal of Urban Economics. Professor Wassmer has a book (co-authored with John Anderson), Bidding for Business: The Efficacy of Local Economic Development Incentives (2000) published by the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. He also has produced an edited collection of previously published articles on Readings in Urban Economics: Issues and Public Policy (2000) published by Blackwell. Rob Wassmer has offered his advice to groups like the Urban Land Institute, Community Services Planning Council, National Education Association, City of Los Angeles on Business Tax Reform, California Futures Network, Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Sacramento American Lung Association, Sacramento Assemblyman Darryl Steinberg, and various California Legislative Committees. His current major research project is on the causes and consequences of urban sprawl in the United States. This research has been supported by small grants from Valley Vision and the California Institute for County Government, large grants from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the California Senate Office of Research, and a spring 2001 sabbatical from CSUS. Wassmer has published policy opinions in the Sacramento Bee. His recent working papers are available at his homepage.
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