Professor Alex Anas, PhD, is Frank H. and Josephine L. Goodyear Professor of Economics (1991-1999, 2017-2023). Prior to joining the University at Buffalo in 1991, Anas was a professor at Northwestern University (1975-1991), and a full professor there (1985 -1991). Anas has been visiting professor at Stanford University (1981-1982), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1986-1988), the University of Southern California (1995), at Vrije University Amsterdam (2023), and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2024-2025). In 2006, Prof. Anas was inducted as a fellow of the Regional Science Association International; and in 2016, he was awarded the Walter Isard Prize in recognition of his scholarly achievements in the field of Regional Science. He is the author of 3 books and over 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and book chapters.

His interdisciplinary research interests over the years have spanned theoretical, empirical and applied urban economics, transportation economics and public economics. A focus of Prof. Anas' research career has been the development of computable models based on microeconomic theory, that can be used to empirically analyze the impacts of changes and policies on urban structure. Prof. Anas is the developer of RELU-TRAN (Regional Economy, Land Use and Transportation), a computable general equilibrium model that treats the structural interconnections of spatially disaggregated labor markets, the markets for housing and non-housing floor space, industry location, real estate development, work and non-work personal transportation and energy utilization and emissions in personal transportation. The development of RELU-TRAN was supported by major research awards from the National Science Foundation and the United States Environmental Protection Agency. These awards helped apply the model to the analysis of congestion, road pricing and urban sprawl in Chicago. A 2010 research award from the University of California’s Office of the President supported a more extensive application of RELU-TRAN to Los Angeles. The model has also been applied to Paris, France with the support of the Societe du Grand Paris. The applications of RELU-TRAN have resulted in numerous publications and invited lectures, seminars and conference presentations. 

• PhD, University of Pennsylvania
• MA, MCP, University of Pennsylvania
• BS, BA, Carnegie-Mellon University

• National Science Foundation, Urban Research Initiative competition, 1998: “Infrastructure and Metropolitan Development.” ($ 450,000). January 1999 – October 2006. (Project director and principal investigator).
• United States Environmental Protection Agency, Science to Achieve Results Program, “A Long Term Integrated Framework Linking Urban Development, Demographic Trends and Technology Changes to Stationary and Mobile Source Emissions.” ($ 675,000). December 2004 through October 2010. (Project director and principal investigator)
• University of California Multi-campus Research Initiative Project competition  2009: “A Virtual Co-laboratory for Policy Analysis in the Greater L.A. Region” ( $ 2.3 million) January 2010 – 2016, (Author of proposal and scientific director of project as visiting research economist at the University of California at Riverside)
• For a complete grant history, please see Professor Anas’s CV on his personal webpage.

• What do Chicago, Paris and Los Angeles have in common? Public seminar at the New Economic School, The Russian Federation, Moscow. February 18, 2013. You Tube recording: Alex Anas_What do Chicago, Paris and Los Angeles have in common?

• Downs Law Revisited: How and Why Expanding Roadways Reduces Congestion Despite Induced Travel – TBD National Center. Hosted by the University of Texas in Austin. March 3, 2025.  You Tube recording: TBD Webinar Series | Downs Law Revisited: How and Why Expanding Roadways Reduces Congestion

• Anticipating the effects of NYC congestion pricing: insights from the counterfactual modeling of congestion pricing in Chicago. Hosted by New York University. May 5, 2025.You Tube recording: Congestion Pricing in NYC Webinar Series: Prof. Alex Anas, SUNY Buffalo

• Why Even the Hyperloop Probably Wouldn’t Change Your Commute Time - The New York Times
• Wins the Richard J. Arnott Overall Best Paper Prize for the paper entitled “Downs’s Law Under the Lens of Theory: Roads Lower Congestion and Increase Distance Traveled”
  

• Awarded the Richard J. Arnott Overall Best Paper Prize by the Scientific Committee of the International Transportation Economics Association’s Annual School and Conference 2023, held in Santander, Spain, from June 12 -16, 2023. Article, published in the Journal of Urban Economics in 2024 can be accessed at “Downs's Law” under the lens of theory: Roads lower congestion and increase distance traveled - ScienceDirect. Also available at:
• SSRN: “Downs's Law” Under the Lens of Theory: Roads Lower Congestion and Increase Distance Traveled by Alex Anas :: SSRN
• Frank H. and Josephine L. Goodyear Professorship, State University of New York at Buffalo, 2017 – 2023.
• 2016 recipient of the Walter Isard Award for distinguished scholarly achievement. Established in 1994, the award pays tribute to regional scientists who have made significant theoretical and methodological contributions to the field of Regional Science throughout their careers.
• David E. Lincoln Fellowship in Land Taxation from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy (January 2014 – December 2015)
• Fellow of the Weimer School of Advanced Studies in Real Estate and Urban Economics, (inducted January 2009).
• The subject field of urban and regional economics was ranked as the top subject field in economics at the University at Buffalo and 15^th in the nation: “A Guide to Graduate Study in Economics: Ranking Economics Departments by Fields of Expertise”, Therese C. Grijalva and Clifford Nowell, Southern Economic Journal 2008, 74(4), 971–996.
• Fellow of the Regional Science Association International. A “high honor by the Association in recognition of distinguished scholarship in, and contribution to Regional Science” (inducted August 2006).
• David E. Lincoln Fellowship, Lincoln Institute for Land Policy, 2001.
• Lusk Center Summer Research Fellowship, University of Southern California, 1995.
• Frank H. and Josephine L. Goodyear Professorship, State University of New York at Buffalo, 1991-1999
• United Parcel Service visiting professor on infrastructure planning and management, Stanford University, 1981-1982.