Collegiate Affiliation

Thomas Holmes is currently the chair of the Department of Economics at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. He joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis as an economist in 1993. He is currently a visiting scholar in the Research Department. He previously taught at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Tom’s research focuses on industrial organization and economic geography. He has recently developed models to explain the rapid spread of Wal-Mart stores and the geographic distribution of union membership. His work has been published in journals such as the Journal of Political Economy, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the American Economic Review. He is an associate editor at the RAND Journal of Economics and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Educational Background & Specialties
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Educational Background

  • Ph.D.: Economics, Northwestern University, 1985
  • B.A.: Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 1981
  • B.S.: Mathematics, University of Pennsylvania, 1981

Specialties

  • applied microeconomics
  • industrial organization