Robinson College of Business Names Rajeev Dhawan As Director of the Economic Forecasting Center

ATLANTA, October 27, 2000. The Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University has announced that Dr. Rajeev Dhawan, director of econometric forecasting at the University of California at Los Angeles, will become director of the College's Economic Forecasting Center on November 15.

Dr. Donald Ratajczak, who helped develop the Center's national reputation for economic forecasting, officially retired as director in May. He currently serves as an emeritus professor and Robinson Distinguished Fellow, providing lectures and presentations for the College.

Dhawan has served as the director of econometric forecasting at UCLA since 1997 where he has prepared economic forecasts of the U.S. and has maintained the macroforecasting models of the U.S. and California economies. Additionally, he has taken the lead role in facilitating economic impact reports produced by the forecast group. These reports have analyzed the impact the loss of aerospace jobs in the early 90s, oil price shocks, and automobile import restrictions have had on California's economy and its future growth potential. He is often cited in national and regional newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Investors Business Daily and San Diego Tribune.

Prior to his position as director at UCLA, he served as a research economist in the Econometric Forecasting Center from 1996 to 1997. His research in business cycle area analyzes the impact of monetary policy changes on the growth and survival of small firms.

His book "Firm Size, Financial Intermediation and Business Cycles" explores the effect of credit constraints on the U.S. economic performance. He has also developed a new statistical technique that measures the productivity of an industry or a nation using firm-level data. Another of his research interest has been to examine why Toyota has dominated the automotive product market. From 1995 to 1996, he was an economist with Welch Associates & Unicon Research Corporation based in Santa Monica, Calif.

Dhawan holds the Ph.D. in Economics from UCLA, and master's and bachelor's degrees in economics from Delhi University in India.

"Since Don Ratajczak announced his retirement last year, the College has conducted an extensive search to fill this important position in our nationally recognized Economic Forecasting Center," said Dean Sidney E. Harris.

"We were pleased with the strong interest in this position, and are excited to have someone of Dr. Dhawan's background and expertise join us to further strengthen the Center's reputation and service to the community," said Harris.

"Under Dr. Rajeev Dhawan's leadership, the center will continue to be the primary source for accurate and useful regional economic information," said Dr. Carl Patton, president of Georgia State University.

The Economic Forecasting Center, established in 1973, is a non-profit department of Georgia State's Robinson College of Business. The Center provides quarterly forecasts of the national, regional and local economies, and provides services to the university and the business community. Models developed by the Center are used to forecast producer prices, inflation, interest rates, consumer prices, financial markets, production, GDP accounts, foreign trade, housing starts and other items of interest.

The J. Mack Robinson College of Business is one of the nation's top business schools. The College's part-time MBA program has been listed in the top ten by U.S.News & World Report for the past five years. In addition, the magazine recently lists many of the College's undergraduate and graduate programs among the nation's best. Forbes magazine list the Robinson College in the top ten for return on investment for regional schools, and Business Week ranks the College's Executive MBA program among the top leading 20 schools in the nation.