Josephine LaPlante

Education: Syracuse University, B.A., 1973; M.C., 1978; M.A., 1983; Ph.D., 1984

Research Interests: public budgets and tax policy, education finance, and the application of quantitative methodology to policy problems

Professor LaPlante teaches Applied Statistics, Public Finance & Budgeting, Budgeting and Accounting for Public & Nonprofit Managers, Fiscal Analysis for Community Development, and the Seminar in Financial Analysis. She is the author of Dollars and Sense: Maine State Budgeting at a Crossroads. LaPlante completed a study of the impacts of federal retrenchment on the states for the Twentieth Century Fund Foundation. She is currently focusing on approaches to funding education to ensure resource equity and development of a framework for conceptualizing and measuring return on the public investment in private business. Her publications on the evaluation of public finance policies and applied statistical methodologies have appeared in books and journals including Public Administration Review, Public Productivity and Management Review, and Knowledge: Creation, Diffusion and Utilization.