Steven Miller

Steven R. Miller

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Assistant Professor
Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics

Degrees:
Ph.D., Oklahoma State University
B.A., Oklahoma State University

Fixed-term assistant professor Dr. Steven R. Miller specializes in applied economic methods for forecasting and impact analysis. He is also the Director of the Center for Economic Analysis, which commonly engages Michigan stakeholders on addressing economic questions and promoting a better understanding of economic implications of development, and policy across many topics. Steven is highly skilled in the areas of data analysis, predictive analytics, and data management and splits his time as a predictive modeler with MSU Enrollment Management.

A common emphasis across Steven’s projects is advancing the communication of economic value created by Michigan’s industries, enterprises and natural resources, especially in rural Michigan, and understanding how that value intersects with policy and community. This often entails modeling the full supply chain from raw material and labor inputs to the value of final goods for sale or export. It also entails accounting for consumer and user preferences, production approaches and other aspects that make up markets.

He covers a wide range of topic areas. Recent work includes understanding the economic implications of environmental regulations, like those on Michigan livestock effluent management practices. On another project, institutional controls are a way to mitigate the harm of chemical spills. In collaboration with the MSU Institute for Water Research and For Love of Water, Steven helped to develop a framework for enumerating the social costs of implementing institutional controls over more active forms of pollution remediation. Steven has also worked with many local economic development agencies around the state, including that in Macomb and Mason Counties to understand how their respective natural and built up amenities impact tourism, tourism expenditures and the associated economies.

Dr. Miller also maintains the MSU Economic Forecast Model of the national, state and regional economies. This ongoing effort is a useful resource for Michigan residents, businesses and governments for understanding key factors affecting the economy and for planning. Along with the economic forecast model, Steven tracks and reports on current economic trends and reports on the economic impact of agriculture for each of Michigan’s 83 counties.

The Center for Economic Analysis draws on expertise of the faculty that makes up the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, and the Center's objectives include linking research questions to appropriate faculty. The Center works with department faculty and other university faculty to address stakeholder requests for economic analyses. Through the Center, Steven has been successful in funding projects along a wide swath of topics including public policy, health care, agriculture policy, environmental policy and economic development.

Research and Outreach Interests

Building models for and producing national, state and local economic forecasts
Impact assessment of industry and policy
State and local incentives for economic development
Spatial estimation models
Bayesian vector autoregression models for forecasting
Impact assessment of recreation destination

Center for Economic Analysis draws on expertise of the faculty that makes up the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, and the center's objectives include linking research questions to appropriate faculty. The center works with department faculty to push through stakeholder requests for economic analysis & has been successful in pushing projects along a wide swath of topics including public policy, health care, agriculture policy, environmental policy and economic development.

Steven's personal area of interest is in projects and programs around economic growth and development, including community- and regional-based entrepreneurship programs.