Professor Chad Jones' main research interests lie in macroeconomics, specifically economic growth.  In the colloquial sense, "growth" and "development" are synonymous.  However, economic growth and economic development are quite distinct.  According to Professor Jones, economic growth deals with aggregate trends, while economic development is like "applied micro-theory" to individual countries.  Granting that, the data that Professor Jones uses in his analysis of economic growth is different from the data that one would use for economic development.  For development data, Professor Jones suggested talking with Professor Pranab Bardhan or Professor Ted Miguel (who is on leave the 2002-03 academic year.)  But if you are interested in macroeconomics and are looking for aggregate trends, then talk with Professor Jones.

When he was working on his undergraduate thesis at Harvard, Professor Jones found The Journal of Economic Perspectives to be a rich source of ideas for research questions.  Each quarterly issue of the Journal contains articles on a few featured economic fields.  In defining a research question, Professor Jones offers the following advice:  (1) Make sure that it is a big question.  Since we are going to be putting a lot of work into our theses, we should work to answer a big question.  (2) Make sure that it is an important question.  The question may be big, but does it make people think?

For next spring, Professor Jones will be teaching Economics 101B and Economics 202B.  Although he will have a busier teaching schedule, he can take on advisees.  His ideal advisee would already have a well-defined research question in a topic somewhat related to his specialties, so that he may best be able to work with the advisee in finding data and resources.  Overall, I found Professor Jones to be very informative, friendly, and happy to answer questions.