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Applied Economics |
Division Contact: Harold Marshall We research and provide technical assistance in the field of economic analysis. We provide information to decision makers in the public and private sectors who are faced with choices among new technologies and policies relating to manufacturing, industrial processes, the environment, energy conservation, construction, law enforcement, and safety. We also develop and conduct prototype training programs in applied economics. Benefit-cost analysis, life-cycle costing, multicriteria decision analysis, environmental life-cycle assessment, and econometrics are techniques we use to evaluate new technologies, processes, governmental programs, legislation, and codes and standards to determine efficient alternatives. Research areas include energy conservation in buildings, sustainable development, fire safety, automation, and building economics. Products include reports of research findings, standard methods and guidelines for making economic evaluations, audiovisuals that teach and illustrate methods in practice, and decision-support software with documentation. Currently, we are
enhancing and expanding our decision-support systems for evaluating the
environmental and economic performance of buildings; developing models
and software for evaluating the life-cycle cost effectiveness of new technology
materials; identifying industry profiles that foster technology adoption;
estimating economic impacts of NIST technology development programs; developing
Internet tools for evaluating the benefits of durability in housing components;
and providing cutting-edge, web-friendly, economic software tools for
evaluating the long-term cost effectiveness of capital investments in
buildings and building components.
Date
created:
August 17, 2001 |