Mark. A Thoma is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Oregon. He received his B.A. in Economics from California State University at Chico and his Ph.D. in 1985 from Washington State University.
Mark Thoma is conducting research on the effects that changes in the money supply have on the economy. His papers in this area have examined the sensitivity of the estimated relationship between money and the real economy to the time period examined, the cyclical position of the economy, and the stance of monetary policy. In some of his most recent work, Professor Thoma provides an explanation for the widely divergent conclusions reached by different researchers concerning the ability of money to affect output and employment. Using innovative econometric methodology, he shows that the estimated strength of the relationship between money and output increases when income is falling and decreases when income is rising. His findings suggest that while a contractionary monetary policy can cause a recession, an expansionary monetary policy cannot cause an expansion in economic activity, which raises questions about the wisdom and efficacy of countercyclical monetary policy.
Dr. Thoma maintains a personal weblog, which can be accessed here.