Urban Development, Information Technology

Professor Getz brings a wide range of expertise to the program, especially concerning new information technology and its use in education and publishing. He has served as Associate Provost for Information Services and Technology at Vanderbilt, at which time he created the first "wired" classroom at Vanderbilt. He went on to write the first textbook in business and economics published as a CD-ROM by South-Western College Publishing (a course in statistics aptly titled "e.stat"). He is an award-winning teacher. His has published three books and numerous papers, including an influential article on the effect that infrastructure investments in transportation has on land rents. He has also been Director of Vanderbilt’s Central Library. Currently, Professor Getz is Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Economics.

Consulting experience: Libraries and information technology firms

Courses offered to GPED students: Urban Economics and Public Finance

General research interests: Urban Economics, Public Finance, Education

Specific research topics: New economy, electronic publishing, adoption of innovations, higher education, information, environmental goods, land rents.

"Electronic Publishing in Academia: An Economic Perspective," Journal of Electronic Publishing (University of Michigan Press), September 1997.

"Adoption of Innovations in Higher Education" (with John J. Sigfried and Kathryn A. Anderson) The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 37 No. 3 (Fall 1997) pp. 605-31.

Veterinary Medicine in Economic Transition, Iowa State University Press, 1997

"Petabytes of Information," Advances in Library Administration and Organization. Vol 12.(JAI Press, 1994) pp. 203-37.

"Evaluating Digital Strategies for Storing and Retrieving Scholarly Information." Journal of Library Administration XXIV #4 1997, pp. 81-98.

"Information Storage," Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, Vol. 52, Supplement 15, 1993, pp. 201-239.

Economic Challenges in Higher Education, (with Charles T. Clotfelter, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, John J. Siegfried) University of Chicago Press, 1991

Public Libraries: An Economic View, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980.

The Economics of the Urban Fire Department, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979

"Consumer Revealed Preference for Environmental Goods," Review of Economics and Statistics (with Yuh-ching Huang), August 1978, pp. 449-458.

"A Model of the Impact of Transportation Investment on Land Rents," Journal of Public Economics, February 1975, pp. 57-74.