Background
Polenske, Karen Rosel was born on March 20, 1937 in Lewiston, Idaho, United States. Daughter of Albert T. and Helen M. Polenske.
Polenske, Karen Rosel was born on March 20, 1937 in Lewiston, Idaho, United States. Daughter of Albert T. and Helen M. Polenske.
Bachelor in Home Economics, Oregon State University, 1959. Master of Arts in Public Administration and Economics, Syracuse University, 1961. Doctor of Philosophy in Economics, Harvard University, 1966.
Instructor, lecturer Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1966-1970, research associate economic research project, 1966-1972. Senior visitor faculty of economics King's College, Cambridge University, England, 1970-1971. Associate professor department urban studies and planning Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts, 1972-1981, professor department urban studies and planning, since 1981.
Senior economics consultant World Bank (in China), Washington, 1988-1990, CMT (in Kuwait), Cambridge, 1987-1988, Development Alternatives Inc. (in Pakistan), Washington, 1987-1988, Asian Development Bank (in China), Manila, 1988, 92, Boston Institute for Developing Economics, Washington, 1990-1991, United Nations Development Programme (in India), 1993. Delegate System of National Accounts Revisions, United Nations, Vienna, Austria, 1988.
Visiting scholar exchange program National Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 1986. Visiting professor University Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, 1983, University Montpellier, France, 1985, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1988, 90-92, 94, University Brasilia, 1994, Keio University, 1996. Director Special Program in Urban and Regional Studies (SPURS), 1973-1974, 91-94.
Co-author: (with member of research staff) State Estimates of the Gross National Product, 1947, 58, 63, State Estimates of Technology, 1963. Author: The United States Multiregional Input-Output Accounts and Model, 1980. Editor: Multiregional Input-Output Analysis, 1972, 73, The Technology-Energy-Environmental-Health Chain in China, 2006, Chinese Version, 2006, The Economic Geography of Innovation, 2007, Chinese Version, 2009.Co-editor: (with Jiri V. Skolka) Advances in Input-Output Analysis, 1976, (with Ronald E. Miller, Adam Z. Rose), Frontiers of Input-Output Analysis, 1989, (with Chen Xi Kang) Chinese Economic Planning and Input-Output Analysis, 1991. Review editor International Panel on Climate Control.
Twenty years ago my interest in regional economic development became focussed on the analysis of regional economic disparities. I have pioneered in the development for the United States of a regional accounting framework comparable to that used at the national level for the analysis of changes in the gross national product. My specific contribution to the field of regional planning has been threefold: (1) the development of a method for constructing a comprehensive set of multi-regional accounts (2) the actual estimation of a set of multi-regional accounts for the United States.
And (3) the application of the general multi-regional accounting framework to policy issues both in the United States and abroad. One of my most valuable contributions to the field has been a description of the conceptual
framework and data-estimation procedures required to construct multiregional accounts. This information was published in a series of six volumes.
The sixth volume, The United States Multiregional Input-Output Accounts and Model, provides a systematic presentation of the entire theoretical framework of the multi-regional accounts and model as well as a summary of the procedures and data sources used for assembling the accounts. The creative aspect of the work on the basic multiregional accounts and model is over. They are being used on a day-by-day basis.
I am therefore embarking on two new but related areas of research. The first is the development of a technique for quick retrieval of up-to-date information that can be incorporated year by year into a general multi-regional accounting framework. The second is an extension of the initial multi-regional accounting framework to include information on capital, both financial and physical.
Member Cambridge (Massachusetts) Committee on the Status of Women, 1978-1980. Member American Economic Association, Regional Science Association (councillor at large 1990-1993), International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, International Input-Output Association (vice president 1991-1996, president 1997-2001, council member 1991-2004, fellow since 2007), National Ocean Economics Project (national advisory board since 1999), North American Regional Science Association (council member 1990-1993, Alonso prize 2003-2007, fellow since 2005), South Coast Air Quality Management District (socioeconomic technical modeling advisory committee, Los Angeles, open market evaluation senior economist, reviewer 2000-2001), University West Virginia Regional Research Institute (external advisory board).
Birding, photography.