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Robert M. La Follette
School of Public Affairs
1225 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706

Telephone:  608.262.3581
Fax: 608.265.3233


Last updated:
October 6, 2009

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Donald Nichols. La Follette School photo by Bob Rashid taken Feb. 2, 2005

Donald Nichols

Professor Emeritus of Public Affairs and Economics

Office: 7310 Sewell Social Science Building
Phone: 608 263-2327
Fax: 608 262-2033
E-mail:

Department of Economics
Sewell Social Science Building
University of Wisconsin - Madison
1180 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706-1393

Donald Nichols is Professor Emeritus of Economics and Public Affairs. He served as Director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs from 2002-2006. His research is in the areas of macroeconomic theory and policy and regional economic policy. His work has appeared in the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, and Review of Economics and Statistics. His most recent contribution is a new definition of an export base for a regional economy, which appeared in International Regional Science Review.

Professor Nichols is an award-winning teacher and has played a prominent role in public affairs, both nationally and in Wisconsin state. He served on the staffs of the Council of Economic Advisers to the U.S. president in 1963 and the U.S. Senate Budget Committee in 1975 and 1976. He was Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor from 1977 to 1979 and Economic Advisor to the Governor of Wisconsin from 1983 to 1986. He serves on Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle's Economic Advisory Council and on the board of Thompson Plumb Funds. Professor Nichols received his doctorate in Economics from Yale University.

Thinking About Dark Matter and Purchased Services, January 2006 response to Business Week Online's Economics Unbound / PDF version


La Follette School Working Paper Series