Professor Jenny Liu is an environmental and transportation economist with a focus on public policy, urban issues and social equity. Her research takes on a multidisciplinary approach with a deep foundation in microeconomic theory, econometric methods and environmental sustainability. Her primary research focus is on (i) linkages between transportation, economic development and sustainability; (ii) economic issues and impacts of public policy; and (iii) human capital investments.

Dr. Liu has conducted research on an Oregon state-level carbon tax, the Oregon electric vehicle industry, household residential location decisions and its effects on travel behavior, economic development impacts of transit oriented developments across the country, economic impacts of deconstruction versus demolitions and property value effects of the Oregon property tax system. In addition, Dr. Liu has worked on developing social media performance measures for public transit, and constructing a transportation cost index that can measure multimodal transportation performance on a regional scale. 

Following up on her research on understanding the economic impacts of bike/pedestrian infrastructure such as the Portland Green Loop, she is currently working on research that examines the business impacts of street improvements for bicycle and pedestrian mobility across numerous cities using a variety of data sources and analytical approaches, and research to understand how to characterize urban greenway networks in the context of economic development. Dr. Liu is also working on understanding the environmental and economic impacts of an Oregon low carbon transportation fuel standard, and examining equity and environmental justice issues of a state-level greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program in Oregon.