Texas State faculty member awarded Dee Roberts Excellence Professorship

The Brandon Dee Roberts Excellence Professorship was awarded to assistant professor in the Department of Finance and Economics Dr. Yao-Yu Chih. 

Every year the McCoy College of Business awards this distinguished professorship to a Texas State professor who examples excellence in the early stages of their teaching career. Dr. Chih has been an instrumental part of the Department of Finance and Economics since his arrival in 2014. 

Dr. Chih said that personally he has greatly benefited from the scholarly environment at the McCoy School of Business. He sees this professorship as a great honor and an opportunity to add his own influence to the environment of McCoy college. 

“From my point of view, receiving the Roberts Professorship represents a great opportunity to prepare for a higher level of responsibilities,” Dr. Chih said. “I am very enthusiastic about devoting myself to the college’s commitment to student success and reaching new heights of excellence.”

When asked how he planned to use his professorship, Dr. Chih said his main focus would be on heterogeneous spatial autoregressive models. Based on a recently published paper Dr. Chih and Dr. Le Sage will contribute a new chapter to the second edition of the Handbook of Regional Science, a prestigious encyclopedia in the field of regional science. 

“Heterogeneous spatial autoregressive modeling is capable of producing estimates of spill-in and spill-out effects for each region in the sample,” Dr. Chih said. “With the availability of large datasets and increased computing power, our new heterogeneous approach is poised to become the standard in regional science.”

Dr. Chih said he also plans to use a portion of his professorship to recruit and develop partnerships with higher education institutions in East Asia, where more than half of international students studying in the United States are from. 

Without a doubt, Dr. Chih says he loves Texas State and the San Marcos community. He is extremely excited to give back to the environment that he says provides so much

“The campus and the Texas Hill Country are just gorgeous. When I am stuck on a research project, I like to walk from McCoy Hall to Old Main and enjoy the view of San Marcos downtown from the hill,” Dr. Chih said. “What impresses me the most is that students are extremely nice and friendly. They are the reason that I love Texas State so much!”