A true inspiration to all who learn.
Challenges students to reach their potential.
David Papell is the Joel W. Sailors Endowed Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at the University of Houston, a position he has held since 2002. He joined the University of Houston in 1984 as an Assistant Professor, advancing to Associate Professor in 1989 and full Professor in 1995. Prior to that, he served as Assistant Professor at the University of Florida from 1980 to 1984. Papell earned his Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University in 1981, M.Phil. in 1979, and M.A. in 1976, as well as a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1972. From 2004 to 2019, he chaired the Department of Economics for 15 years, during which he established a full-time M.A. program, enhanced the Ph.D. program, secured increased research funding for faculty, and pioneered the hiring of full-time instructional faculty. His research specializations encompass International Economics, Monetary Policy, and Time Series Econometrics. Papell has held visiting appointments including Visiting Scholar at the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund in spring 1990 and Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia in spring 1986. He was a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research from 1982 to 1985.
Papell received the University of Houston Research Excellence Award in 2016 and the University of Houston/Amoco Teaching Excellence Award in 1995. He has contributed to academic publishing as Associate Editor of the Journal of International Economics (1999-2006), Journal of Money, Credit and Banking (2001-2020), Empirical Economics (2002-2012), Southern Economic Journal (1998-2006), and others, and as Co-Editor of the Southern Economic Journal in 1997. Key publications include the textbook "Macroeconomics: Growth, Fluctuations, and Policy," co-authored with Robert Hall (W.W. Norton, 2005). Prominent articles feature "The Great Wars, the Great Crash, and the Unit Root Hypothesis" with Dan Ben-David (Journal of Monetary Economics, December 1995), "Multiple Trend Breaks and the Unit Root Hypothesis" with Robin Lumsdaine (Review of Economics and Statistics, May 1997), "Slowdowns and Meltdowns: Postwar Growth Evidence from 74 Countries" with Dan Ben-David (Review of Economics and Statistics, November 1998), "The Purchasing Power Parity Persistence Paradigm" with Christian Murray (Journal of International Economics, February 2002), and "Purchasing Power Parity Under the Gold Standard" with Natalie Hegwood (Southern Economic Journal, July 2002). His research has advanced understanding of exchange rates, purchasing power parity, unit roots, structural breaks, and monetary policy dynamics.