The following University of California, Davis, sources are available to share expertise with media on various aspects of the economy, including climbing gas prices. Specific lists on trade (including supply chain), poverty and minimum wage are linked at the bottom. This list updated in 2024.

Economy, stock market, inflation

Joseph Chen, associate professor in the Graduate School of Management, researches stock markets. Chen’s research reveals that stock market returns behave asymmetrically. Chen also looks at how exposure to market risk varies over time, and investigates when extreme moves, such as stock market crashes, are more likely. In another line of research, Chen is exploring the effects of company organizational structures in the portfolio management industry. Chen completed his Ph.D. at Stanford University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst. In the mid-1990s he worked on Wall Street as a proprietary arbitrage trader of international equity derivatives at Bear Stearns. Contact: chenjs@ucdavis.edu

Rachel Chen, professor in the Graduate School of Management, conducts cutting-edge research on operations and supply-chain management, and dynamic pricing. Her scholarship has appeared in leading journals. She grew up in central China and moved to Shanghai to attend Tongji University. In addition to her management education and teaching, she has a bachelor’s degree in computer science. She has published research on how airlines should provide better consumer service by compensating passengers when flights are delayed. Contact: rachen@ucdavis.edu

Òscar Jordà, professor of economics, specializes in macroeconomics, central banking and monetary policy. Together with professor Alan M. Taylor and Sanjay R. Singh he co-authored a working paper in March 2020 on the historic economic effects of pandemics. The research was written about on Bloomberg.com. Contact: ojorda@ucdavis.edu

Katheryn Russ, professor of economics in the College of Letters and Science, has discussed how the post-pandemic supply chain issues will affect holiday purchasing, car purchases and other consumer economic realities. She is a faculty research associate in the National Bureau of Economic Research International Trade and Investment Group, and she is non-resident senior fellow of the Peterson Institute.

She served as senior economist for international trade and finance at the White House Council of Economic Advisers in 2015-2016.

Since 2017, her work and comments about trade policy and the impact of tariffs and supply-chain on consumers and firms have been covered in international print and broadcast media including National Public Radio, ABC News, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, The New York Times Upshot, The Christian Science Monitor, various Chinese publications, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Liberty Street Blog. Contact: knruss@ucdavis.edu

Derek Stimel, associate professor of teaching economics, can explain inflation, insurance costs, recession and many economic issues that affect people's bottom line finances. He has expertise in monetary and macroeconomics as well as financial economics. He has commented for MoneyGeek, WalletHub and other media. Contact: dstimel@ucdavis.edu

Alan M. Taylor, professor of economics and finance, has appointments in the Department of Economics and the Graduate School of Management. He is also a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a research fellow of the Center for Economic Policy Research in London. He currently serves as a co-editor at the Journal of International Economics. His research interests span macroeconomics, finance, international trade and economic history. He can discuss inflation. Contact: amtaylor@ucdavis.edu

Small businesses, technology, entrepreneurship

Joe DiNunzio, executive director, Mike and Renee Child Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, is an 
assistant adjunct professor in the UC Davis Graduate School of Management. His expertise is in operations management, management and organizations and technology management. He teaches MBA and undergraduate students and authors case studies in innovation and entrepreneurship. As executive director of the UC Davis Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, he works with researchers and corporate leaders to support commercialization of more than $1 billion in research work conducted annually by the university. DiNunzio founded and serves as president of Fido Management, a partnership that provides strategic counsel to both corporate and early-stage clients in business, product, and market development, as well as helping them build and run high-performance teams. Contact: pdinunzio@ucdavis.edu

Marc Lowe is a continuing lecturer in the UC Davis Graduate School of Management. He can speak to media on product management, new and small business ventures, and business planning. Lowe is founder of the former Praxis Ventures. Praxis Ventures had been instrumental in raising more than $200 million in venture capital financing for its clients and has advised on M&A transactions and initial public offerings valued in excess of three billion dollars. Previously, Lowe was senior vice president of corporate development and general manager for emerging business units at Adaptec Inc., a publicly traded information technology firm headquartered in Silicon Valley. Contact: mdlowe@ucdavis.edu

Oil and gas supply, automobiles, energy, more inflation

Mark Agerton, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, is available to discuss his research on U.S. oil and gas supply issues. Contact: mjagerton@ucdavis.edu

Bulat Gafarov, assistant professor in Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, can discuss gas supply and cost issues as well as inflation and the macroeconomy. Contact: bgafarov@ucdavis.edu

Erich Muehlegger, professor of economics, is an expert in energy and environmental economics, public finance and tax policy, and industrial organization.  He can discuss the markets for transportation fuels and how tax policy and energy prices affect consumer vehicle purchases.  His recent research studies the effect of gasoline taxes, vehicle subsidies and energy prices on electric vehicle adoption, and the effect of oil price shocks on gasoline and diesel prices. (On sabbatical, but can respond in Western European Time). Contact: emuehlegger@ucdavis.edu

Dave Rapson, professor of economics, conducts research in energy and environmental economics, industrial organization, and applied econometrics. In his research he has collaborated with electric utility companies and government regulatory agencies, with a focus on informing policy decisions in the transportation and electricity sectors. His research includes the evaluation of dynamic electricity pricing regimes, carbon offset programs, and the design and analysis of large-scale randomized field experiments to test the role of information and prices on consumer electricity demand. Contact: dsrapson@ucdavis.edu

Gil Tal directs the Plug-in Hybrid & Electric Vehicle Research Center at UC Davis. He can discuss alternative fuel vehicles, electric vehicle infrastructure, travel behavior, transportation planning and non-motorized transportation. gtal@ucdavis.edu  

Hemant Bhargava, professor in the Graduate School of Management, is an expert on technology management, management information systems, economics of information technology industry, pricing and product design decisions, management decision technologies. He can speak with reporters about the need for charging networks for electric cars to be a viable transportation alternative. Contact: hemantb@ucdavis.edu

Keith Taylor is an extension professor at the University of California’s Cooperative Extension and UC Davis’ Department of Community and Regional Development, and teaches in the Department of Human Ecology. Taylor is a recognized leader in utility cooperative governance and has worked widely with energy utilities nationally. Taylor focuses on rural economic issues. Contact: keitaylor@ucdavis.edu