Economist from US Department of Commerce Joins USM Muskie School
September 8, 2005
Portland, ME: Barbara Fraumeni, former chief economist of the Bureau of Economic Analysis at the U.S. Department of Commerce, has joined the faculty at the USM Muskie School of Public Service. She serves as chair of the Ph.D. program in public policy, USM's first doctoral degree.
"Dr. Fraumeni is a national and international leader in economic analysis," said USM Provost Joe Wood. "She will make a tremendous contribution to the Muskie School, USM and the University of Maine System." Fraumeni specializes in the measurement of macroeconomic measures such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and the examination of sources of economic growth, including productivity and capital.
Fraumeni served as chief economist at the Bureau from January 1999 until July 2005. She holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. from Boston College, both in economics. After graduation from Wellesley, she became a research assistant for Dale W. Jorgenson of the Department of Economics and the John F. Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University, beginning a research collaboration that continues to the present. From 1982 through 1998, Fraumeni was a professor of economics at Northeastern University. From 1988 through 1998, she was also a research fellow of the Program on Technology and Economic Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School.
First offered in 2000, the doctoral program is the first and only Ph.D. at the University of Southern Maine. Twenty-seven students are currently enrolled. The USM Muskie School also offers master's degrees in community planning and development, health policy and management, and public policy and management.
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