David H. Greenberg
Professor Emeritus
Research Interests: Labor Economics, Industrial Relations
David H. Greenberg Remembered
UMBC’s Economics Department mourns the passing on March 4, 2024 of long-time faculty
member, David Greenberg. Dave Greenberg served as Professor of Economics at UMBC from
1982 until his retirement in 2002. Prior to joining UMBC, Dave worked for many years for the
RAND Corporation and for the Office of Income Security, U.S. Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare. Between 1968 and 1969 he served on the President’s Commission on
Income Maintenance Programs. He obtained his B.A. in 1962 from Southern Methodist
University and his PhD in 1966 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both in
Economics.
Dave was a prolific scholar. He published 6 books including his influential textbook Cost-Benefit
Analysis: Concepts and Practice co-authored with A. Boardman, A. Vining, and D. Weimer,
which has gone through five editions, the most recent being published in 2018. He published
some 55 peer reviewed journal articles and 18 chapters in edited book volumes. He was an
expert in the evaluation of a wide range of social welfare programs including income
maintenance, welfare to work, and job training programs. He completed dozens of contract
policy evaluation reports not only for U.S. organizations but also for those based in Canada and
the United Kingdom. Dave was also active in teaching and policy consulting in Hungary and
elsewhere in Eastern Europe. He was quite active in publishing articles and producing evaluation
reports for over a decade after his retirement.
At UMBC Dave taught courses in labor economics, industrial relations and cost benefit analysis
as well as principles of microeconomics. He served on numerous Public Policy dissertation
committees. He also served on UMBC’s University Faculty Review Committee.
With his wife Linda, Dave enjoyed a range of outdoor activities such as cycling, camping and
hiking. He and Linda took a number of extended driving trips through-out Australia.
When Dave joined the UMBC faculty in 1982 at the full Professor rank he contributed to raising
research and scholarly expectations within the department. However, he was also an
approachable and helpful mentor to junior faculty. As a new faculty member at UMBC in the
early 1980s, I benefitted from being able to hitch rides with Dave in the Volkswagen convertible
that he had recently brought back from a trip to Germany. Dave leaves behind a very productive
legacy as researcher, teacher, mentor, and conscientious academic citizen.
A “CELEBRATION OF LIFE” will take place on March 16 th from 2 to 5 PM at his Linda’s
cousins “Hattie and Rick Katkow residence, – 9232 Broken Timber Way, Columbia. Please let
Hattie know if you are planning to attend at Heak@comcast.net.
– David Mitch
UMBC Department of Economics