Fred V. Carstensen

Professor of Finance and Economics / Director, Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis, University of Connecticut

Prof. Carstensen graduated with Honors from the University of Wisconsin in 1966 and completed his doctorate at Yale University in 1976. After teaching at the University of Chicago and the University of Virginia, he came to the Department of Economics at the University of Connecticut in 1982; in 2012 he moved to the Department of Finance in the School of Business. He served three times as visiting Shelby Cullum Davis Professor of American Institutions and Values at Trinity College. He served as the Senior Editor for biographies of leading American business leaders for the Dictionary of American Biography.  His primary research has focused on transnational enterprise, entrepreneurship, and the political economy of capitalism; his scholarship has contributed to work on Russian, British, Mexican, and American economic and business history. 

 

In 1998, he assumed the Directorship of the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis (CCEA). Under his leadership, CCEA has provided a wide array of economic analyses and policy studies for a host of clients, including the University itself, executive and legislative agencies of Connecticut, development authorities, foundations, and businesses. The studies, now numbering more than 200, have ranged from sophisticated, long-term economic impact studies of proposed developments to assessments of the state business tax environment to comprehensive build-out scenarios to assess the long-term impact of regional development to projecting the value of social programs, including childcare and diaper banks. The most consequential CCEA studies provided the foundation for the $850 million initiative to raise the competitive position of UConn Health, which then led to the JAX Lab colocation, and the agreement that kept Pratt & Whitney in the Connecticut until at least 2030 and more than $400 million in new investments. 

Prof. Carstensen has provided legislative testimony on a variety of economic issues facing the state, its regions, and municipalities. He has done a wide variety of interviews with the media (television, radio, and print) to comment on contemporary economic, business, and policy issues.