2026 Economic Outlook Breakfast
You are invited to the Ames Regional Economic Alliance Annual Economic Outlook Breakfast, presented by Keen Project Solutions and Iowa State University Research Park!
We are excited to welcome Dr. Peter F. Orazem, Interim Chair and Professor, Department of Economics for Iowa State University, as our speaker. Join us at the Gateway Hotel & Conference Center as we forecast the local, state and regional opportunities, challenges and economic trends, and how they affect the AREA business community. Space is limited, so register today!
About The Speaker:
Peter Orazem is University Professor and interim Chair of Economics and Director of the Program for the Study of Midwest Markets and Entrepreneurship at Iowa State University. He is a 1977 graduate in economics at the University of Kansas and received his Ph.D. in economics from Yale University in 1983.
He served for two terms as a member of the Ames City Council. He served on the Boards for Mainstream Living and the Ames Convention and Vistors’ Bureau. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Kansas and a visiting scholar at the World Bank. He participated in the writing of the 2007 World Development Report and in the 2004, 2008, 20012, and 2015 rounds of the Copenhagen Consensus. In 2018 and 2024, he served as a Fulbright Fellow at the Univerza na Primorskem in Slovenia.
His research deals with labor markets in the United States and in developing countries with a particular interest in human capital, regional economic development, and entrepreneurship. He has published over 100 refereed journal articles along with 18 book chapters and an edited volume. He has served as major or co-major professor for 56 Master’s and 28 PhD students and served on 149 other Master’s and PhD committees. He is frequently interviewed for his views on the state of the economy in local and national media including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Economist magazine and National Public Radio.
2026 Economic Outlook Breakfast Sponsors
