Thomas Holmes joined the Bank as an economist in 1993. He is currently a visiting scholar in the Research Department and holds the Curtis L. Carlson Chair in Economics at the University of Minnesota. Before joining the Bank, he taught at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Tom’s research focuses on industrial organization and economic geography. He has recently developed models to explain the rapid spread of Wal-Mart stores and the geographic distribution of union membership. His work has been published in journals such as the Journal of Political Economy, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the American Economic Review.
Tom received his B.A. in mathematics and his B.S. in economics at the University of Pennsylvania in 1981, and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from Northwestern University in 1983 and 1985, respectively. He is an associate editor at the RAND Journal of Economics and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Recent Work/Updates
February 2013 - Economic Policy Papers
Additional Files [pdf]
Revised November 2011 - Working Paper 687
September 2011 - The Region
Additional Files [pdf]
July 2011 - Economic Policy Papers
Additional Files [pdf]
April 2010 - Staff Report 445
February 2010 - Staff Report 439
Published In: Annual Review of Economics
(Vol. 2, September 2010, pp. 619-642)
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
90 Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55401