Diana Thomas

Dr. Diana Thomas is an associate professor of Economics at Heider College of Business at Creighton University.  A German native, she earned her Diploma in Business Administration from Fachhochschule Aachen and her BS in Finance from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. After gaining some experience as a junior portfolio manager at a mutual fund management company in Frankfurt, Germany, Dr. Thomas returned to George Mason University to complete her MA and PhD in Economics in 2005.  She moved to Utah State University in the Fall of 2009 and has since then primarily taught classes in International Economics.
Her primary fields of research are in the areas of public choice, development economics, and Austrian economics. In her work, Dr. Thomas explores the role political entrepreneurs play in changing the formal and informal rules that govern economic exchange in society.  She has published papers on the regulation of late medieval German beer markets, informal property rights institutions among taxi cab drivers in Trujillo, Peru, regulation of child care markets, and the role political entrepreneurship plays in bringing about institutional change more generally.