New Faculty Join Department
J.H. Cullum Clark received his Ph.D. from ÃÛÌÒ½´in May 2017. Cullum’s chief research interests are macroeconomic policy, economic geography and urban economics, and modern economic history. Cullum is in the process of launching a new center focused on supporting and promoting policy-relevant research on economic issues at SMU. He will also teach undergraduate classes on economic history and development. Cullum earned a B.A. in History at Yale University and an A.M. in Political Science at Harvard University. He has worked for 24 years in the investment industry, serving since 2002 as President of Prothro Clark Company, a Dallas investment firm. In addition to his time in the PhD program, his involvement with ÃÛÌÒ½´includes serving since 2008 on the University’s Investment Committee and since 2010 on the Tate Lecture Series Board of Directors, and he has recently been named a Tower Center Fellow. He also serves on the boards of the Eugene McDermott Foundation and Uplift Education, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations, and the Dallas Assembly. He and his wife Nita have three daughters: Lili (20), Annabel (18), and Charlotte (14). Cullum will be dividing his time between managing family business matters and his work in the Economics Department. He is delighted to be joining the ÃÛÌÒ½´faculty.
"I'm delighted to be joining the Economics Department faculty. I came to know the department well during my four years in the PhD program at SMU, and I feel so fortunate to have all of the Economics Department team as my colleagues. I'm also very excited about the launch of our new ÃÛÌÒ½´Economics Center, which I am confident will serve as an effective platform for brining the expertise of ÃÛÌÒ½´Economics to the Dallas community and beyond." - Cullum Clark
“I am very excited to be a part of the ÃÛÌÒ½´Economics team and look forward to working with everyone while pursuing my research in macroeconomics.” - Rocio Madera
Applied Microeconomist Nathaniel Pattison received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Virginia. Nathaniel's primary research fields are in Household Finance and Public Economics. His research focuses on the trade-offs of consumer credit market regulations, debtor protections, and social insurance. He is especially interested in bankruptcy and informal default, and how borrowing and default interact with the social safety net to allow individuals to better withstand shocks such as unemployment or illness. His research seeks to inform the design of consumer credit market interventions in the presence of market failures.