Robert Inman Faculty Profile

Robert Inman
Richard King Mellon Professor of Finance; Professor of Finance and Economics, Business and Public Policy, Law and Economics (Law School), Real Estate
Vice Dean and Director, Doctoral Programs
Senior Fellow, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics

PhD, Harvard University, 1971; MEd, Harvard University, 1967; AB, Harvard University, 1964

Research Areas
Public finance; political economy; urban fiscal policy

Recent Consulting
Tax policy, City of Philadelphia, 1988-98; Municipal finance, Chemical Bank, 1989-90; Citicorp, 1980; Regulation of public enterprise, UPS, 1986-87; Federal tax policy, U.S. Treasury, 1985; Pension Policy, California, 1994; National Academy of Sciences panel Member, "Demographic and Economic Imparts of Immigration," 1995-97; Fiscal policy, republic of South Africa, 1994-2000; World Bank, 1994-present; National Academy of Sciences panel member, "Estimating Eligibility and Participation for the WIC Program," 2001-2003; Member, Mayor's Council of Economic Advisors, Philadelphia, 2002-present

Current Projects
Economic federalism in the United States, Europe, Russia, and South Africa. Efficient and equitable financing of public services in urban economies.

Academic Positions Held
Wharton: 1980-present (Vice Dean and Director, Doctoral Programs, 2005-present; named Richard King Mellon Professor of Finance, 2003). University of Pennsylvania: 1971-present. Visiting appointments: Chulalongkorn University, Thailand; Harvard University; Stanford University; University of California, Berkeley; University of London; Australian National University; European University Institute, Florence, Italy 

Other Positions
Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1981-present; Visiting Senior Research Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, 1980, 1982-1987, 1991-92, 1994, 1997, 23002

Career and Recent Professional Awards; Teaching Awards
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Fellow, 1976; Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, 1992-93; Fulbright Florence Chair of Economics, European University Institute, Florence, Italy; Undergraduate Division Excellence in Teaching Award, 1992, 1994, 1998; Graduate Division Excellence in Teaching Award, 1997, 2000; The Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, 2000 (University of Pennsylvania); Helen Kardon Moss Anvil Award, 1978, 2001

Professional Leadership 2003-2007
Associate Editor, Regional Science and Urban Economics, 1987-present; Executive Committee, International Seminar in Public Economics, 1990- present; Associate Editor, Public Finance Quarterly, 1980-present 

Representative Publications
"Balanced Budget Rules and Public Deficits: Evidence from the U.S. States." Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy (November 1996).

"Rethinking Federalism." Journal of Economic Perspectives (Fall 1997).

"Changing the Price of Pork: The Impact of Local Cost Sharing on Legislators' Demands for Distributive Public Goods." Journal of Public Economics (February 1999).

"Should Suburbs Help Their Central Cities?" Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs, 2002.

"Fiscal Policy in Open Cities with Mobile Firms and Household." Regional Science and Urban Economics (April 2001).

"Transfers and Bailouts: Enforcing Local Fiscal Discipline with Lessons from U.S. Federalism." Enforcing the Hard Budget Constraint, J. Rodden, ed., MIT Press, 2003.