Kurt Zorn

Education

• Ph.D. in Economics, Syracuse University, 1981
• M.A. in Economics, Syracuse University, 1978
• B.A. in Economics, State University of New York at Albany, 1976

Courses

• Government Finance & Budgets
• Public Management Economics
• Public Finance and Budgeting
• Urban Problems and Solutions

Biography

Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Kurt Zorn, is an economist and SPEA professor who specializes in state and local public finance. Zorn''s expertise covers tax policy, transportation safety, economic development, and gaming. Zorn has conducted research, consulted, and taught in the general area of tax policy and fiscal decentralization in international settings including Egypt, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Russian Federation, China, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates. His work, spanning three decades and more than 60 articles and book chapters, has been published in journals including Public Budgeting & Finance, Economic Development Quarterly, Public Finance Quarterly, Growth and Change, Public Administration Review, and The Journal of the Transportation Research Forum. Zorn is co-author of the book Why Airplanes Crash: Aviation Safety in a Changing World published by the Oxford University Press.

Zorn first joined Indiana University more than 30 years ago, in 1980. In addition to his academic duties, he also serves as faculty athletics representative to the Big Ten and the NCAA. Other posts at IU have included director of state relations, advisor to the president, and interim dean and associate dean for academic and fiscal affairs at SPEA.

Zorn is a member of the City of Bloomington Economic Development Commission and serves on the editorial board of Public Budgeting and Finance. In the late 1990s, Zorn served as chair of the Citizens'' Commission on Taxes, created by Indiana Governor Frank O''Bannon to formulate recommendations for improving the state and local tax system in Indiana. He has also served as chairman of the Indiana State Board of Tax Commissioners, as well as consultant to the State of Indiana, Indiana Infrastructure Inc., U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Transportation, and the President''s Commission on Aviation Safety.