Allen C. Goodman

Professor Emeritus

Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202

(248) 996-2050

Email: allen.goodman@wayne.edu

 

Winter 2025

 

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I retired as Professor of Economics at Wayne State University in May 2022.

I continue to conduct research in health and housing economics.

 

My research interests, papers, and presentations are located here. For my vita, click here.

 

My research, funded by the Michigan Health Endowment Foundation starting April 1, 2017, has sought to improve care in Skilled

Nursing Facilities (SNFs) through improved information systems for residents/caregivers/administrators. Contact me for more details.

 

The Economics of Health and Health Care 9^th edition (Sherman Folland z''l, Allen C. Goodman,

Miron Stano, and Shooshan Danagoulian), with Instructor's Guide and Study Questions,

came out in February 2024, and is available for purchase and adoption.

 

In 2021, I co-edited the Handbook on Teaching Health Economics: Best Practices with Maia Platt (z''l).

This volume features contributors from North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Australia.

 

Other recent work with Brent Smith investigates the economics of medical real estate.

 

COVID-19 Blog

In March 2020, I started a blog of economic perspectives on COVID-19.

After 128 posts (June 6, 2023), I reached a close. The individual posts are listed

below. A compendium of all of the posts is available at C-19-Blog.

COVID-19 - Like a Massive Tax (March 16, 2020)

Public Health, Epidemics, and Economics - 10 out of 10? (March 17, 2020)

Test Everybody? (March 18, 2020)

Martin Arrowsmith in 2020 - Dealing with Plagues (March 20, 2020)

Coronavirus Resource Center - Johns Hopkins University (March 21, 2020)

Forget the Great Recession - Think the Great Depression (March 23, 2020)

Back by Easter? Marginal Benefits and Marginal Costs (March 24, 2020)

Testing 2 - Finding the Denominator, Finding the Location (March 26, 2020)

Manufacturing Through COVID-19 - Serious Problems (March 28, 2020)

The Pharmaceutical Industry - Watch What You Listen For (March 30, 2020)

 

Numbers Matter - Death Estimates and False Negatives (April 1, 2020)

How Many Ventilators is Enough? (April 2, 2020)

Together and Apart - Economies of Scale and COVID-19 (April 5, 2020)

Economic Models of COVID-19: Taxes and Cigars (April 6, 2020). Also to appear

in Contexts, April 8, 2020

The Wisconsin Poll Tax (April 7, 2020)

Who Can Re-Open - COVID-19 Cap and Trade (April 11, 2020)

What Is It About Epidemics that Business Leaders Do not Understand? (April 14, 2020)

How Should We Re-Open? (April 16, 2020)

How Should We Reopen? Part 2 - Lessons from the Film Industry (April 18, 2020)

COVID-19 and the Cities (April 21, 2020)

Distributing Vaccines - The Economics are Simple (April 23, 2020)

Re-Opening Universities (April 27, 2020)

The Shape of the Economy (April 30, 2020)

Prioritizing Testing and Workplace Re-opening Under COVID-19

Shooshan Danagoulian, Zhe Zhu and Phillip D. Levy (May 1, 2020)

An excellent study by WSU colleagues.

 

Risk and Uncertainty - What We Have is Uncertainty (May 3, 2020)

 

The Health Externality (May 6, 2020)

 

Aggregate Demand Again (May 9, 2020)

 

We Need a Cost-Effective Vaccine (May 13, 2020)

 

Flattening the Curve, and then Watching It Spike (May 14, 2020)

 

Race to the Top, or Race to the Bottom (May 18, 2020)

 

Clark Clifford in 2020 (May 20, 2020)

 

Memorial Day - 2020 (May 25, 2020)

 

Says Law and the Macroeconomics of 2020 in the Era of COVID-19 (May 29, 2020)

 

Searching for the Number (June 6, 2020)

 

COVID-19 Three Months In: Random Thoughts (June 10, 2020)

 

How Should We Reopen? Round 3 - The Health ID Card (June 14, 2020)

 

The Distributional Aspects of COVID-19 (June 19, 2020)

 

The Right Amount of Care (June 25, 2020)

 

All it Took Was One Packed Bar (June 28, 2020)

 

Underinvestment in Education - The COVID-19 Story (July 2, 2020)

 

How Should We Re-Open? July 4 Edition (July 4, 2020)

 

COVID-19 is a Tax - and a Big One (July 11, 2020)

 

The States and the Great Lockdown (July 17, 2020)

 

Opening Schools (July 25, 2020)

 

Forget the Great Recession: Redux (August 1, 2020)

 

Despite the Uptick, Michigan Drops (August 4, 2020)

 

Surprises in the Year of COVID-19 (August 9, 2020)

 

College Football? (August 11, 2020)

 

Deaths Above Normal (August 14, 2020)

 

Somewhat Misleading Statistics - The COVID-19 Tax (August 17, 2020)

 

Three Cheers for Michigan State (August 20, 2020)

 

Bad Incentives (August 24, 2020)

 

Labor Day Weekend 2020 (September 4, 2020)

 

The ULINE Catalog of Everything (September 5, 2020). Guest blog by Max Goldstein.

 

He Knew (September 10, 2020)

 

The Empire Struck Back (September 16, 2020)

 

200,000 Deaths (September 22, 2020)

 

Believing Science (September 25, 2020)

 

The President is Infected (October 2, 2020)

 

Seatbelts and Masks (October 5, 2020)

 

The Failed Coup in Michigan (October 12, 2020)

 

The Great Barrington Mistake (October 14, 2020)

 

The COVID-19 Tax: A View from Michigan (October 26, 2020)

 

Hopeful News on a Vaccine (November 10, 2020)

 

Thanksgiving Day - Stopping COVID-19 Pollution (November 21, 2020)

 

COVID-19 Pollution and Growth (November 26, 2020)

 

The Moon and the Ghetto - After 50 Years (December 2, 2020)

 

College - End of Fall Term 2020 (December 14, 2020)

 

How to Allocate the Vaccine (December 20, 2020)

 

Capital Losses and a Domestic Marshall Plan (December 25, 2020)

 

The Economy in the New Year (January 1, 2021)

 

The Vaccination Mess - and a Proposed Solution (January 10, 2021)

 

A COVID-19 Report Card (January 19, 2021)

The Federalized Vaccine (January 23, 2021)

How About Rent Vouchers - Big Time This Time? (February 3, 2021)

Happy Valentine's Day (February 10, 2021)

Allocation When Markets Cannot Be Used (February 20, 2021)

The Right Amount of Care, Revisited (February 22, 2021)

The New Revisionism on In-Class Education During COVID-19 (March 3, 2021)

Time to Remain Patient (March 8, 2021)

Nursing Homes and COVID-19 (March 13, 2021)

Second Dose (March 18, 2021)

The Benefits of Vaccine Passports Far Outweigh the Costs (March 25, 2021)

Michigan is Spiking Again (April 1, 2021)

Wave 4 in Michigan (April 8, 2021)

Trying to Stop a Runaway Train (April 16, 2021)

How Much Longer Will We Need Masks? (April 22, 2021)

The Shape of the Economy - One Year Later (April 30, 2021)

It's the Aerosols, Stupid (May 9, 2021)

Strange CDC Decisions on Vaccine and Mask Mandates (May 16, 2021)

Slouching Toward a Market Vaccination Solution (May 23, 2021)

Reckoning (May 31, 2021)

Easy and Hard Numbers (June 6, 2021)

U.S. Life Expectancies Plummeted in 2020 (June 27, 2021)

Normalcy (July 5, 2021)

Trillions Greater Than Billions (July 15, 2021)

Why Payments Are Better than Lotteries (July 25, 2021)

The Elusive Herd Immunity (August 4, 2021)

The COVID-19 Economics of Community (August 12, 2021)

Dangerous Behavior (August 21, 2021)

Governor Whitmer Wants to Win Reelection (August 25, 2021)

Negotiating the Next Stage of COVID-19 (August 30, 2021)

Social Security and COVID-19 (September 1, 2021)

Controlled and Natural Experiments (September 5, 2021), with Sara Goodman MPH.

Simchot Again (September 17, 2021)

Convention-2021 (September 29, 2021)

Supply Chain Woes (October 9, 2021)

How Good Are the Vaccines? (October 20, 2021)

Rising Prices Do Not Necessarily Mean Inflation (October 27, 2021)

Professional Conferences During a Pandemic (November 1, 2021), Guest blog by Sara Goodman MPH.

COVID-19 Era Education: Long-Term Impacts (November 7, 2021)

The Pandemic as a War (November 14, 2021)

Lockdowns Again: Legislating COVID (November 21, 2021)

Nursing Homes Open Doors Wide to Visitors (November 28, 2021)

Post-COVID Syndrome (December 7, 2021)

News of the Week (December 14, 2021)

Fully Vaccinated? (December 30, 2021)

Delta, and then Omicron (January 9, 2022)

The Nursing Shortage During COVID-19 (January 24, 2022)

Finishing the Second Year (February 2, 2022)

Rewriting Pandemic Economics (February 11, 2022)

Is it Over? (February 24, 2022)

Two Years of Pandemic: An Accounting (March 13, 2022)

One Million Deaths (March 23, 2022)

Risk and Uncertainty Once Again (April 18, 2022)

This is the Way the COVID Ends (May 3, 2022)

Is This Time Different? (May 14, 2022)

Deaths of the Elderly (May 20, 2022)

A Pause, for Now (June 4, 2022)

Now, Its Personal (June 23, 2022)

Endemic Was Not Supposed to Be This Way (August 23, 2022)

Epilogue (June 6, 2023)

*****

 

Research

I retired as Professor of Economics at Wayne State University in May 2022.

I continue to conduct research in health and housing economics.

 

My research interests, papers, and presentations are located here. For my vita, click here.

 

My research, funded by the Michigan Health Endowment Foundation starting April 1, 2017, has sought to improve care in Skilled

Nursing Facilities (SNFs) through improved information systems for residents/caregivers/administrators. Contact me for more details.

The Economics of Health and Health Care 9^th edition (Sherman Folland z''l, Allen C. Goodman,

Miron Stano, and Shooshan Danagoulian), with Instructor's Guide and Study Questions,

is in print as of February 2024, and available for purchase.

 

In 2021, I co-edited the Handbook on Teaching Health Economics: Best Practices with Maia Platt (z''l).

This volume features contributors from North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Australia.

 

Since July 2019, the Wayne State Economics Department has participated in the City of Detroit University Economic Analysis Partnership:

University of Michigan (Gabriel Ehrlich PI); Wayne State University (Allen C. Goodman PI); Michigan State University (Eric Scorsone PI)

This unique collaboration has provided economic consulting and forecasting services to the City of Detroit.

*****

Policy and Research Presentations

March 10, 2004 Detroit News Op-Ed piece Detroit Housing Rebound Needs Safe Streets, Good Schools.

January 15, 2008 participation in a podcast on the BBC regarding the Healthcare System in Detroit and the U.S.

A policy proposal - Fixing Part of the Mortgage Meltdown, April 9, 2008

Michigan Stem Cell Economics Study, August 2008

A January 29, 2009 clip from the radio program Detroit Today, looking at Detroit's fiscal crisis.

"The Economics of Health Care Reform", presented October 25, 2011 at the Adult Learning Institute.

Is there an S in Urban Housing Supply? or What on Earth Happened in Detroit? Click here.

Goodman, Goodman, Goodman, and Goodman "A Few Goodmen" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QktKLTLyLIM) presented at 2015 AEA Meetings

Interview with Stephen Henderson on WDET, April 6, 2016, about Differential Taxation for Public Services in Detroit

*****

Graduate Studies at Wayne

I retired as Director of Graduate Studies in Economics in May 2022.

For information on application/admission to our Economics Department programs, please contact

Prof. Michael Belzer at michael.h.belzer@wayne.edu.

*****

Jeopardy! and Trivia

RIP Alex Trebek, November 8, 2020.

On June 13, 2008. I competed on Jeopardy! Others have written blogs about their adventures.

I decided to do something else! I hope you like it.

On October 1, 2014, my daughter Sara also competed. She did better than Dad.

Sara and I are currently Llamas in the Cove League of Learned League.

 

*** Peace Corps ***

Sara started a Peace Corps career in Burkina Faso in June 2011, returning in August 2013.

Her experiences were exciting and unusual. She continued her blog during her return.

Sara received her MPH at The Johns Hopkins University in May 2015, and her

PhD in public health at The University of California-Irvine in June 2023.  She is currently

a research epidemiologist at Stanford University.

 

To contact me via e-mail click allen.goodman@wayne.edu

updated September 6, 2024

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