KGUN 9 Discusses COVID-19 and Economy with Hammond

Director of the Economic and Business Research Center and Research Professor at the Eller College of Management George Hammond was featured in a March 27 KGUN 9 news segment on the recovery of the Southern Arizona economy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The interview covered how the recovery stimulus is expected to have a slower effect on the Southern Arizona economy due to its reliance on tourism, restaurants and bars.

Hammond said, “once we get control of the virus and people start feeling more comfortable about going out and mixing in, in large crowds and getting on airplanes and staying in hotels, eating in restaurants drinking at bars, then the whatever money is leftover and whatever cushion that is provided to people, that's when we'll start to see that start to matter.” 

Hammond was also featured in an April 21 KGUN 9 news segment on the economic implications of low oil prices in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as the country has seen a decrease in mobility. "The collapse in oil prices will hurt oil production in the U.S., and that's a much bigger share of the U.S. economy than it was 30 or 40 years ago," he said.

Hammond directs the Economic and Business Research Center in the Eller College of Management. Hammond has designed, built and used economic models to produce forecasts for state and local economies and completed regional economic studies on topics including economic and workforce development and the impact of higher education on human capital accumulation. His academic research focuses on the determinants of local economic growth in the U.S. and the impact of state and local policies on economic growth.