Antonio Avalos, Ph.D. - Associate
Dr. Antonio Avalos has spent several years conducting research on workforce issues. He started in 1995 as a research assistant with the Department of Economics at the University of Central Oklahoma. In a joint research project about street vendors in the City of Puebla, Mexico, Antonio conducted surveys to determine the rate of return to capital and educational investment made by households operating in the informal -subterranean- economy.
In 1998, he was appointed Herman Kahn Fellow at the Hudson Institute in Indianapolis, Indiana working for the Center for Workforce Development. Antonio assisted the Center in several applied research studies integrating economic development and workforce development at the local level.
In 2002, Antonio was selected by a panel of international economists as a visiting scholar at the Andean Corporation of Development in Caracas, Venezuela, where he conducted applied research in international trade, economic development and labor markets in Latin American economies. His major project involved investigating the determinants of wage differentials and wage inequality in Latin America. Antonio also assisted the Andean Corporation of Development in a study about regional and international migration of the workforce. His contribution, "Migration and Regional Integration", was presented at an international conference sponsored by the UNESCO and SELA.
Currently, Antonio is Assistant Professor of Economics at California State University, Fresno. Among other things, he is investigating the dynamics of labor markets in the Central Valley. Antonio's main goals are to identify the forces shaping the Central Valley's economy, analyze the changes in work, the workplace, compensation and occupations in recent decades and to build a scenario for the Central Valley's Workforce of the Year 2020.
Antonio earned his Ph.D. in Economics from Oklahoma State University with specialization in Economic Development and International Economics. His areas of expertise also include Labor Economics and Latin American Economic Development.