P. Gary Wyckoff
Professor of Government Emeritus (retired)
An economist by training, Professor of Government Gary Wyckoff is director of Hamilton’s Public Policy Program. His research interests include the empirical foundations of public sector decision-making. Appointed to the faculty in 1991, he received his doctorate from the University of Michigan and his bachelor’s degree from Macalester College. Wyckoff’s articles have appeared in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of Urban Economics, and the Journal of Education Finance. He authored Policy and Evidence in a Partisan Age: The Great Disconnect (2009) and is working on Radical Empiricism, which highlights personal, business, and public policies that conflict with the best available evidence. Wyckoff has served on the Environmental Studies Committee and as executive editor of Insights, Hamilton’s undergraduate social science journal.
Recent Courses Taught
Data Analysis
The Pursuit of Happiness
Health Care Reform in the United States
AIDS Policy in the United States
Reform of the Education System in the United States
Reform of the Social Security System
The Impact of Refugees in Oneida County
Mental Health Policy in New York State
Foster Care Policy in New York State
Meta-Analysis
Senior Project
Selected Publications
- Policy and Evidence in a Partisan Age: The Great Disconnect, Urban Institute Press, 2009
- “Capitalization and the Incidence of School Aid,” Journal of Education Finance, 27:1, summer 2001, pp. 585- 608.
- “Capitalization, Equalization, and Intergovernmental Aid,” Public Finance Quarterly, 23:4, October 1994, p. 484-508.
- “The Elusive Flypaper Effect,” Journal of Urban Economics, 30:3, November 1991, pp. 310- 28.
- “Testing Bureaucratic Influence on Local School Expenditures by Comparing Survey and Expenditure Data,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, 73:2, May 1991, pp. 331-35.
- “A New Case for Vouchers,” The Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 10:1 winter 1991, pp 112-116.
- “Bureaucracy, Inefficiency, and Time,” Public Choice, 67:2, November 1990, pp. 169-179.
- “The Simple Analytics of Slack-Maximizing Bureaucracy,” Public Choice, 67:1, October 1990, pp. 35-47.
- “Bureaucracy and the ‘Publicness’ of Local Public Goods: A Reply to Gonzalez, Folsom, and Mehay,” Public Choice, 62:1, July 1989, pp. 79-82.
- “A Strategic Success Factor Analysis of the New Orleans Vessel Traffic Service,” (with Louis A. LeBlanc), Transportation Journal, 28:1, fall 1988, pp. 44-50.
- “Bureaucracy and the ‘Publicness’ of Local Public Goods,” Public Choice, 56:3, March 1988, pp. 271-284.
- “A Bureaucratic Theory of Flypaper Effects,” Journal of Urban Economics, 23:1, January 1988, pp. 115-129.
- “A Note on the Effect of a Common Misspecification of the Median Voter Model,” National Tax Journal, March 1987, pp. 133-135.
- “Medicaid: Federalism and the Reagan Budget Proposals,” Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Economic Commentary, 15 August 1985.
College Service
Member, Environmental Studies Committee
Appointed to the Faculty
1991Educational Background
Ph.D., University of Michigan
B.A., Macalester College
