Andrew Isserman

Professor of Urban and Regional Planning
Professor of Agricultural and Consumer Economics
PhD, University of Pennsylvania, 1975

Professor Isserman develops, refines, and applies analytical methods for studying economic and demographic change and related policy issues. He has won two National Planning Awards from the American Planning Association, the GEM Award from the National Council for Geographic Education, a Research Fellowship from the American Statistical Association, and a medal from the Soviet Academy of Sciences, among other honors.

His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Ford Foundation, Appalachian Regional Commission, U.S. Departments of Commerce, Defense, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, and Interior, and others.

His research currently has two emphases. He is refining geographical control group methods and applying them to economic development policy issues. Recently published studies have measured the effects on rural economies of casino gambling, dam construction, federal rural development programs, highway investment, military base closure, nuclear weapon site conversion, and other policy decisions. He also is working on methods for analyzing and forecasting local economic and demographic change. He seeks to make population forecasts in ways that induce people to learn more about their area and to engage the future proactively from a far better understanding of economic and demographic realities and prospects. He has practiced and improved this approach over the past four years working with planning firms including Barton Ashman Associates, Pflum, Klausmeier, and Gehrum, and LDR International.

Contact Information
326 Mumford Hall
1301 W Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801
Phone: 217.244.2858
Fax: 217.244.1717
E-mail: isserman@uiuc.edu

Current Research Areas

• Regional and rural economic development
  
  
• Quantitative methods for regional economic and demographic analysis
  
  
• Control group methods for evaluating public policy

Selected Publications

Isserman and Westervelt. 2006. 1.5 million missing numbers: Overcoming employment suppression in County Business Patterns data. International Regional Science Review 29,3 (July)

Isserman. 2005. In the national interest: Defining rural and urban correctly for research and public policy. International Regional Science Review 28,4: 465-499

Isserman 2004. Intellectual leaders of regional science: A half-century citation study. Papers in Regional Science 83,1: 91-126

Isserman 2002. Defining regions for rural America. In The New Power of Regions: A Policy Focus for Rural America, 35-54. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City

Isserman 2001. Creating new economic opportunities: The competitive advantages of rural America. International Regional Science Review 24,1:38-58

Isserman 2000. Economic base studies for urban and regional planning. In The profession of city planning, Rodwin and Sanyal, eds., 174-193. CUPR Press

Isserman and Rephann 1995. The economic effects of the Appalachian Regional Commission: An empirical assessment of 26 years of regional development planning. Journal of the American Planning Association 61,3: 345-364

Rephann and Isserman 1994. New highways as economic development tools: An evaluation using quasi-experimental control group matching methods. Regional Science and Urban Economics 24,6: 723-751

Isserman. 1994. State economic development policy. International Regional Science Review 16,1&2: 49-100