PERC Staff

Dennis W. Jansen


Director


Dr. Dennis W. Jansen is a Professor of Economics and Director of the Private Enterprise Research Center at Texas A&M University.  He holds the Jeff Montgomery Professorship.  He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his undergraduate degree in economics and mathematics from St. Louis University.  His research has focused on macroeconomics, financial economics, forecasting, and the economics of education.  He has received grants from the National Science Foundation and from various agencies in the state of Texas. He has worked for the Texas Education Agency to study the Texas school finance formula, and to evaluate both the Texas Educator Excellence Grant program and the Texas District Award for Teacher Excellence program.  Professor Jansen was a Fulbright Scholar in 2008, lecturing and conducting research in Ireland.  He has chaired the doctoral dissertations of over forty students who hold jobs in academia, government and business in the U.S. and throughout the world.  He is a regular participant at academic conferences.  At Texas A&M University Dr. Jansen has served in various administrative posts including Department Head, Director of Graduate Programs, and Director of Undergraduate Programs.  Dr. Jansen has held research or teaching positions at the National University of Ireland-Galway, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Indiana University-Bloomington, North Carolina State University, Korea University, Southwest University of Finance and Economics (China), Erasmus University Rotterdam, Catholic University Leuven, and Maastricht University.  He has published over seventy research papers in professional journals and books, two textbooks, and numerous other writings. Email Dennis at dennisjansen@tamu.edu.

Dr. Jansen's CV



Andrew J. Rettenmaier


Executive Associate Director


Andrew J. Rettenmaier is the Executive Associate Director at the Private Enterprise Research Center at Texas A&M University. He received a B.S. in Finance and a Ph.D. in Economics from Texas A&M University. His research focuses on income and wealth inequality, labor economics, health care policy, and elderly entitlement programs. He co-authored The Economics of Medicare Reform, W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 2000 and The Diagnosis and Treatment of Medicare, AEI Press 2007. He was an editor of Medicare Reform: Issues and Answers, published in 1999 by the University of Chicago Press. He has been co-principal investigator on several research grants, has published numerous public policy monographs and academic articles. He has published in Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Health Economics, Health Economics, Southern Economic Journal, and Economic Inquiry, among other economic journals. Email Andy at a-rettenmaier@tamu.edu.

 
Dr. Rettenmaier's CV



Liqun Liu


Research Scientist Emeritus


Liqun Liu is a Research Scientist at the Private Enterprise Research Center. He joined the Center after earning his Ph.D. in Economics from Texas A&M University in 1998. Originally from China, he also received a B.S. and M.S. in Applied Mathematics from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Dr. Liu's primary research interests are public policy analysis, cost-benefit analysis, and decision analysis. He has published in Economic Inquiry, Economics Letters, European Economic Review, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Public Economic Theory, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Journal of Theoretical and Institutional Economics, National Tax Journal, and Southern Economic Journal, among other economics journals. He served as an associate editor for Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization from 2012 to 2016. In September, 2017, Dr. Liu and his co-authors received the SCOR - Geneva Risk and Insurance Review Best Paper Award for "Tradeoffs for Downside Risk-Averse Decision-Makers and the Self-Protection Decision." Email Liqun at lliu@tamu.edu.

Dr. Liu's CV



Somali Ghosh Sinha


Senior Research Associate


Somali Ghosh Sinha joined PERC as a Senior Research Associate in the spring of 2022. Somali received her Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in Agricultural Economics and her Master and Bachelor of Science in economics from Calcutta University. Somali has worked in both in the insurance and technology fields. Previously, she produced risk analysis models used by the USDA, and constructed and developed partial and general equilibrium models in order to analyze different policy scenarios in different countries for various commodities. Using her background in simulation, econometric methods and mathematical programming, she studies the areas of risk management, the futures and options market, policy analysis and international trade. Email Somali at somali_sinha80@tamu.edu.



Ashley Bullock


Communications Coordinator


Ashley has been a part of PERC since summer, 2017.  She is originally from the midwest and graduated with a Bachelors of Science degree in Marketing from Southern Illinois University. Mrs. Bullock is responsible for media outreach, event planning and department communications. Email Ashley at ashley.bullock@tamu.edu.