Department: Economics 

Areas of expertise: 

• General Economics
• Education Finance
• Tax Policy
• International/Global Economics
• Income Inequality

Mamo received his doctorate in economics from Western Michigan University in 2000, followed by a one-year appointment as an assistant professor at Western Michigan University. Prior to his appointment at JMU, he held associate and full professor ranks at Westminster University in Salt Lake City, Utah, from 2003 to 2026. There, he taught economics and quantitative methods to undergraduate and MBA students and served as chairman of the economics program for many years.

During the summers of 2011 and 2012, Mamo was appointed an international fellow, teaching global finance at the Glorious Sun School of Business at Donghua University in China.

Mamo’s research interests include the financing of public education and the design and implications of state taxes in the United States. His recent publications in those areas appear in the Eastern Economic Journal and the Journal of Education Finance.

Mamo’s current research focuses on state and local financing of public schools in Virginia while he teaches undergraduate courses in microeconomics and macroeconomics at JMU.

Media contact: Chad Saylor, saylorcx@jmu.edu