Institute Makes Headlines

“Data-hungry Groups Call on UC for Help in Applied Economics.” The title from a recent article in the

Business Courier

emphasized the important role that the Applied Economics Research Institute has assumed in implementing the community outreach goals of UC|21. After only a year in operation, it is receiving major attention from the media and winning kudos from its clients.

In describing the work of the institute, the

Courier

article quoted economics department head Wolfgang Mayer as saying, “This is the best type of illustration of what the university can do. It’s not artificial.” Director Tom Zinn echoed his comments: “In the first six months of operation, we had over $500,000 in requests for proposals. There is definitely pent-up demand.”

Information produced by Zinn’s group has been crucial in media discussions of two high-visibility local concerns.

Before Delta Airlines filed Chapter 11, the institute was already crunching numbers to conclude that a 26 percent cut in service might reduce sales of regional businesses by as much as $414 million if 3,300 jobs were lost region-wide. Zinn told the

Courier

that because air transportation industry earnings are 1.5 percent of total earnings here as compared with 0.6 percent nationwide, the area could be especially hard hit.

The institute delivered more bad news after compiling employment data for the Cincinnati USA Partnership, a 13-county economic program staffed by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce. Discovering that Greater Cincinnati’s annual average unemployment rate (5.6 percent) through July exceeded that of the nation, (5.2 percent), Zinn told the Courier, “This just hasn’t happened before.” He theorized that the area is losing higher-wage jobs in industries like manufacturing while the greatest growth is in low- paying part- time work.

But the news isn’t all bad. Officials anticipate that additional data produced by the institute will eventually bring new jobs to the Tri-State. In addition, it has generated enough business to fund its own operations and has fulfilled its promise of providing students with real- world experience in economics. One of the best proofs of that is collaboration with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland’s Cincinnati location, where a graduate student in economics began a pilot internship this quarter.

Yingduo Shi, an economics student from China described his involvement with the institute as “enriching” and “amazing”: “I received hands-on experience and with Professor Zinn’s help, I now know where to find useful data and how to create, analyze, and organize data. I could combine the economic theory I learned in his Regional Data Analysis class with the real projects for the institute. It enriched my graduate education and was an invaluable experience.”