Rate My Professor Steven Craig

Steven G. Craig is a Professor of Economics at the University of Houston in the Business & Economics faculty. He has been with the department since 1981, starting as an Assistant Professor, promoted to Associate Professor in 1988, and Full Professor since 1997. His academic background includes a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in Public Economics and Development Economics, with dissertation titled "The Allocation of Police: Causes and Consequences," and an A.B. Magna Cum Laude in Economics from Cornell University. Early career appointments include Instructor in the Economics Department at Haverford College (1980) and Bryn Mawr College (1979), Economist at the United States Treasury (1975-1977), and Technical Assistant at the World Bank (1978).

Craig's research specializations encompass fiscal federalism, local publicly provided goods, public choice, and urban economics. Key publications include "Intra-City Tiebout: The Economic Consequences of Crossed Borders" with E. Hoang (The Annals of Regional Science, forthcoming 2024), "Sub-National Governmental Budget Tools for Surviving Shocks: Resiliency in the Public Sector" with Annie Yu-Hsin Hsu (Spatial Resilience, Systemic Shocks, and Regional Responses, Edward Elgar, forthcoming 2024), "Adoption of Technological Change in the Public Sector: Evidence from US States" with E. C. Hoang and J. E. Kohlhase (International Regional Science Review, 2023), "Inequality in Public School Expenditures Across Space and Time" with C. Biolisi, Amrita Dhar, and B. Sorensen (Review of Economic Dynamics, 2022), "Regionalism Meets Samuelson: Local Production of a National Public Good" with Jan Brueckner and Kangoh Lee (Economica, 2021), and "The Public Expenditure Impact of Urban Population Growth" with J. Kohlhase (Urban Empires, Routledge, 2021).

In his career, Craig has held major administrative appointments at the University of Houston, including Interim Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (February 2015–January 2017), Associate Dean of Faculty and Research in the same college (August 2013–January 2015), Faculty Senate President (2006), Faculty Senate President Elect (2005), and Co-Director of the Institute for the Study of Political Economy (2000–2007). He has extensive committee roles, such as chairing promotion and tenure committees, undergraduate curriculum committees, and serving on faculty senate executive committees at department, college, and university levels. Major awards include the CLASS College Teaching Excellence Award (2011) and University Teaching Excellence Award Finalist (2004). Craig served as Invited Instructor at the IEB Summer Institute in Barcelona (2010) and co-edited a special issue of The Annals of Regional Science for the Charles Tiebout Centenary. He is affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).