U-M economist to show metrics matter in Sichel series talk

KALAMAZOO—A University of Michigan economist and dean will demonstrate the importance of metrics in governance and economic growth this month when she speaks at Western Michigan University as part of the Sichel Lecture Series.

Dr. Susan Collins, professor of economics and the Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, will speak at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14, in Room 2028 Brown Hall. Her presentation, titled "Governance and Economic Growth: Showing that Metrics Matter," is free and open to the public.

Susan Collins

Collins earned her bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard University and her doctoral degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Before coming to Michigan, she was professor of economics at Georgetown University and a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution, where she retains a nonresident affiliation. Her area of expertise is international economics, including issues in both macroeconomics and trade. Her current work explores implications of increasing international economic integration, as well as growth experiences in industrial and developing nations.

Collins recently co-authored studies comparing China and India and examined challenges to growth in Puerto Rico. She is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and vice president of the Association for Professional Schools of International Affairs.

Collins recently served as an elected member of the executive committee of the American Economic Association, having chaired the association's committee on the status of minority groups. She also served as a senior staff economist on the President's Council of Economic Advisers.

Sichel Lecture Series

The Sichel Series is organized by the WMU Department of Economics and named in honor of longtime WMU economics professor Dr. Werner Sichel, who retired in 2004. The series is annually cosponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences and the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.