Rate My Professor Kevin Sylwester

Kevin Sylwester is Professor and Director of the School of Analytics, Finance, and Economics at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1997, with fields of study in Macroeconomics, Economic Growth, and Development. His research interests encompass Business Analytics and Economics. Sylwester joined Southern Illinois University and advanced through academic ranks, achieving promotion to Professor on July 1, 2016, serving as Chair of the Economics Department in the College of Liberal Arts by 2020, and assuming his current directorship role.

Sylwester has produced an extensive body of research examining the determinants of economic growth, income inequality, corruption, foreign direct investment, and institutional influences on development, frequently employing cross-country empirical analyses. Key publications include "Anticorruption and growth: Evidence from China," European Journal of Political Economy 55 (2018, with Guangjun Qu and Feng Wang, pp. 373-390); "Environment Quality and International Migration," Kyklos 69 (2016, with Xu Xu, pp. 157-180); "Market Competition and Corruption," World Development 66 (2015, with Aboubacar Diaby, pp. 487-499); "A Note on Geography, Institutions, and Income Inequality," Economics Letters 85 (2004, pp. 235-240); "Income Inequality, Education Expenditures, and Growth," Journal of Development Economics 63 (2000, pp. 379-398); "R&D and economic growth," Knowledge, Technology & Policy 13 (2001); "Foreign direct investment, growth and income inequality in less developed countries," International Review of Applied Economics 13 (2005); "Financial development and poverty reduction in developing countries," Economic Analysis & Policy 51 (2016, cited over 340 times); and "Extortion or cost-reduction: why do firms pay bribes?" (2019). More recent works address diversification, governance, and macroeconomic volatility in MENA economies (2024, with Abdella Eldarassi) and nation brand distance and trade flows. With 67 research works garnering over 2,200 citations, Sylwester's contributions have notably impacted scholarship on policy implications for growth and inequality in developing nations. He oversees programs including the Master of Science in Business Analytics and advises doctoral students in economics.