ALYSON MA, Ph.D.
Alyson Ma is an Assistant Professor of Economics at USD’s School of Business Administration. She joined the USD faculty in 2004 after receiving her Ph.D from the University of California, Davis. She currently teaches undergraduate courses in microeconomics, industrial organization and business statistics.

Alyson is working on a research paper entitled The Effect of China on Mexico – U.S. Trade: Undoing NAFTA?, which focuses on the competitive effects of China on Mexico’s exports to its most important market – the United States. “Thanks, in part, to a grant from the USD Trans-Border Institute, my current research assesses the extent to which China’s increased exports can explain the trends observed in Mexican exports and, particularly, the recent slowdown in the maquiladora outsourcing activity.”

 

STEVE SUMNER, Ph.D.
Steve Sumner is an assistant professor of economics at the School of Business Administration. He joined the faculty of USD after completing his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, San Diego. His areas of specialization include macroeconomics, monetary economics, banking and applied econometrics.

Prior to his graduate work, Sumner spent several years working at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. Sumner is currently teaching undergraduate courses in Macroeconomics, Money and Banking, and Quantitative Business Analysis.

Sumner's primary research interest is in understanding the importance of financial intermediation for the distortion of economic shocks to the real economy. His most recent publication is forthcoming in the Journal of Monetary Economics and is titled “Bank Loan Portfolios and the Monetary Transmission Mechanism.”

STEPHEN CONROY, Ph.D.
Stephen J. Conroy is an associate professor of economics. Conroy has led student groups across the border to study economic development and evaluate living conditions in poor neighborhoods in Tijuana, and participated in the International MBA Business Practicum in Lima, Peru. He has several years of business experience in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, and was a cofounder of Jovenes, Inc., a nonprofit organization serving homeless youth in Los Angeles.

Conroy earned a Ph.D. and M.A. in economics from the University of Southern California, and a bachelor’s degree in economics, with honors, from Creighton University. His academic research has been published in numerous journals.