Matthew Drennan

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Matthew Drennan has been a Visiting Professor in the department since 2004.   He is an Emeritus Professor, City and Regional Planning, Cornell University.

His recent book “Income Inequality: Why It Matters and Why Most Economists Didn’t Notice” was published by Yale University Press in November, 2015. It was reviewed in the Sunday New York Times Book Review, December 20, 2015.

His current research focuses on how minimum wage increases in big cities affect consumption expenditures of low-wage workers in the metropolitan area. Most of his past work has been in urban and regional economics. In the “Encyclopedia of New York City” he wrote the history of the city’s economy from colonial times to the present.

Articles:

“Do Agglomeration Economies Decay over Short Distances? Are They Stable in the Face of Shocks? Evidence From Manhattan,” International Journal of Urban Sciences, Vol. 22, No. 1, 2018

“Does Public Transit Use Enhance the Economic Efficiency of Urban Areas?” with Charles M. Brecher, Journal of Transport and Land Use, Vol. 5, No. 3, 2012.

“Measuring Urban Agglomeration Economies with Office Rents,” with Hugh Kelly, Journal of Economic Geography, Vol. 11, No. 3, 2011.

“Falling Behind: California’s Interior Metropolitan Areas,” with Michael Manville,Berkeley Planning Journal, Vol. 21, 2008.

“Economics: Diminishing Marginal Utility” Challenge, September-October, 2006

“Possible Sources of Wage Divergence among Metropolitan Areas of the United States,” Urban Studies, Vol. 42, No. 9, 2005.

“Unit Root Tests of Sigma Income Convergence Across U.S. Metropolitan Areas,” with Jose Lobo and Deborah Strumsky, Journal of Economic Geography, Vol. 4, No. 5, 2004.

“Transition and Renewal; The Emergence of a Diverse Upstate Economy,”with Rolf Pendall and Susan Christopherson. Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, the Brookings Institution, January, 2004.

“The Economic Benefits of Public Investment in Transportation: A Review of Recent Literature,” Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 22, No. 3, 2003.

“Sectoral Shares, Specialization, and Metropolitan Wages in the United States, 1969-1996,” with Shannon Larsen, Jose Lobo, Deborah Strumsky, and Wahyu Utomo. Urban Studies, Vol. 39, June, 2002.

Book Chapters:

“What’s Wrong With Los Angeles, and What Could Fix It?” California Policy Options, Daniel J.B. Mitchell, ed., UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, 2017.

“Economy,” The encyclopedia of New York City, 2nd Edition, Ed. Kenneth T. Jackson, New Haven:  Yale University Press, 2010.

“The Economic Cost of Disasters- Permanent or Ephemeral?” in Economic Costs and Consequences of Terrorism, Peter Gordon and Harry Richardson, eds, Edward Elgar, 2007.

Paul Ong

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Professor Ong has done research on the labor market status of minorities and immigrants, displaced high-tech workers, work and spatial/transportation mismatch, and environmental justice. He is currently engaged in several projects, including an analysis of the relationship between sustainability and equity, the racial wealth gap, and the role of urban structures on the reproduction of inequality.

Previous research projects have included studies of the impact of defense cuts on California’s once-dominant aerospace industry, the impact of immigration on the employment status of young African Americans, and the influence of car ownership and subsidized housing on welfare usage.

Dr. Ong is the Director of the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge and editor of AAPI Nexus, and has served as an advisor to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, and to the California Department of Social Services and the state Department of Employment Development, as well as the Wellness Foundation and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

He received a master’s in urban planning from the University of Washington, and a Ph.D. in Economics, University of California, Berkeley. Along with his quantitative research, his professional practice includes teaching and applying visual forms of communication.

SELECTED BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS

Set-Aside Contracting in S.B.A.’s 8(A) Program
Paul Ong, Review of Black Political Economy Vol 28, No. 3, Winter 2001, pp. 59-71.

Car Ownership and Welfare-to-Work
Paul M. Ong, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 21, No. 2, Spring 2002, pp. 255-268.

Impacts of Affirmative Action: Policies and Consequences in California
Paul Ong, editor,  Alta Mira Press, 1999.

The State of Asian Pacific America: Transforming Race Relations
Paul M. Ong, editor, Asian Pacific American Public Policy Institute, LEAP and UCLA AASC, Los Angeles, CA, 2000.

The New Asian Immigration in Los Angeles and Global Restructuring
Paul Ong, Edna Bonacich, and Lucie Cheng, editors, Temple University Press, 1994.