Dr. Michael Pakko is Chief Economist and State Economic Forecaster at the Arkansas Economic Development Institute at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Pakko received his B.A. from Michigan State University in 1984 and a PhD from the University of Rochester in 1994.

Before coming to Little Rock in 2009, Dr. Pakko spent 16 years as a research economist and officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, where he published research on a variety of topics, including international trade, economic growth, macroeconomics, and public policy.

In addition to his research and forecasting responsibilities at AEDI – including the annual Arkansas Economic Forecast Conference – Dr. Pakko is an adjunct professor at the UA Little Rock College of Business, and he maintains the Arkansas Economist website at http://www.arkansaseconomist.com/.