Director Profile
Dr. Holahan, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee earned his B.S.in Physics from Notre Dame and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Brown. He was on the faculty of Economics at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee for forty years, nine and one half as its chair. Professor Holahan taught Principles of Economics to over forty thousand students in a 500 seat lecture hall, and online.
In addition, he conducted writing-intensive and math-intensive courses for economics and business students as well as the University’s Honors College, Global Studies Program, and the Executive MBA Program for the College of Business.
He received two university awards for teaching excellence and two teaching a wards from the UWM Lubar School of Business for his role in the school’s MBA program in Beijing.
His research interests are in applied microeconomics and public policy. He has written on a wide range of topics, including but not limited to social security, spatial pricing, location theory, urban sprawl, negative income tax, environmental taxes, freeway congestion, waterpricing, and baseball labor contracts. His research papers have appeared in numerous journals, including the American Economic Review, The Journal of Economic Theory, the International Economic Review, the Southern Economic Journal, and The Journal of Regional Science.
His research on the teaching of economics has been recognized nationally as among the top thirty in “Ranking Economics Journals, Economics Departments, and Economists".
Other teaching activity includes twenty years as Associate Director of the Center on Economic Education, as well as co-author of textbooks on intermediate economics and managerial economics. In his active role in public economic education, he has contributed television and radio commentary, invited speeches, and numerous guest editorials in major newspapers, most notably the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Tampa Bay Times.
His consultancies have included economic advice for politicians as well as litigation support for major law firms and the Federal Trade Commission. His leadership at the university included service on the University Committee (Faculty Senate Executive Committee), Chair of the UW System search for UWM Chancellor, and on the planning and founding executive committees of the new School of Freshwater Sciences. He established the Economics Department Alumni Association, the Alumni - Student Mentoring Program and the Niho Faculty Development Endowment Fund - Focused Research Productivity. This branch of his research includes papers on the tragedy of the commons, the economics of crime, free-market fundamentalism, sports stadiums, energy, teacher shortages, and urban sprawl.
This work appears in such diverse journals as the Journal of Economic Education, Journal of Private Enterprise, International Review of Economics Education, and The Social Studies.