Professor of Economics
Patricia Smith is a professor of economics and studies the relationships between socioeconomic status (SES) and health. She has published research investigating whether fast food consumption follows an SES gradient, whether misperception of body weight is associated with employment and earnings, and whether public food assistance causes weight gain and obesity. She earned her Ph.D. in economics at Virginia Tech in 1986 and joined the UM-Dearborn faculty in 1988. Professor Smith teaches courses on microeconomics, poverty and discrimination, and quantitative methods.
