Connolly Named FCC Chief Economist

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has named Michelle P. Connolly the Chief Economist of the FCC. This is her second term as Chief Economist, having previously served from 2006 to 2007. Dr. Connolly has been a member of the Economics faculty at Duke University since 1997. Prior to joining Duke's Department of Economics in 1997, Dr. Connolly spent a year as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York. Dr. Connolly is an expert in the fields of International Trade, Growth and Development, and Telecommunications. Her research interests include the impacts of technological progress and diffusion, international trade, and human capital on growth and development. Dr. Connolly's research also focuses on innovation, Intellectual Property Rights, and Media and Telecommunications policy. Dr. Connolly has written extensively on these subjects and has been published in the Journal of Economic Growth, the Journal of Development and Economics, the Journal of Economic History, the American Economic Review, and the Review of Industrial Organization. Dr. Connolly currently serves as the Director of EcoTeach and Associate Professor of the Practice at Duke University. She has taught advanced graduate macroeconomics and international trade, intermediate undergraduate macroeconomics, and an honors research workshop. Dr. Connolly received her B.A. in Economics, with Distinction in the Major, at Yale University. She graduated Summa Cum Laude, was made a member of Phi Beta Kappa and was awarded the William Massee Prize for Excellence in Economics. Dr. Connolly received her M.A. and her Ph.D in Economics also from Yale.