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Christopher Wheeler

Senior Financial Economist

Retail Credit Risk Analysis Division

Christopher Wheeler is a senior financial economist in the Retail Credit Risk Analysis Division within Supervision Risk & Analysis at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

His research interests include empirical models of credit risk, consumer finance, labor, public, urban, and real estate economics. Prior to joining the OCC in 2016, Dr. Wheeler was an economist at the Federal Trade Commission, and before that, a research officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. He began his career as an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Tulane University. He holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Wheeler’s ‪research papers can be found here or here‪.

  1. Wheeler, Christopher H. and Luke M. Olson (2015). “Racial Differences in Mortgage Denials Over the Housing Cycle: Evidence from U.S. Metropolitan Areas,” Journal of Housing Economics, 30, 33-49.
  2. Bandyopadhyay, Subhayu, Santiago Pinto and Christopher H. Wheeler (2011). “Urban Crime and Labor Mobility,” Journal of Public Economic Theory, 13 (3), 443-462.
  3. Wheeler, Christopher H. (2009). “Technology and Industrial Agglomeration: Evidence from Computer Usage,” Papers in Regional Science, 88 (1), 43-62.
  4. Wheeler, Christopher H. and Elizabeth La Jeunesse (2008). “Trends in Neighborhood Income Inequality in the U.S.: 1980-2000,” Journal of Regional Science, 48 (5), 879-891.
  5. Owyang, Michael, Jeremy Piger, Howard J. Wall and Christopher H. Wheeler (2008). “The Economic Performance of Cities: A Markov-Switching Approach,” Journal of Urban Economics, 64 (3), 538-550.
  6. Wheeler, Christopher H. (2008). “Local Market Scale and the Pattern of Job Changes among Young Men,” Regional Science and Urban Economics, 38 (2), 101-118.
  7. Wheeler, Christopher H. (2008). “Worker Turnover, Industry Localization, and Producer Size,” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 66 (2), 322-334.
  8. Wheeler, Christopher H. (2007). “Job Flows and Productivity Dynamics: Evidence from U.S. Manufacturing,” Macroeconomic Dynamics, 11 (2), 175-201.
  9. Wheeler, Christopher H. (2007). “Industry Localization and Earnings Inequality: Evidence from U.S. Manufacturing,” Papers in Regional Science, 86 (1), 77-100.
  10. Wheeler, Christopher H. (2007). “Do Localization Economies Derive from Human Capital Externalities?” Annals of Regional Science, 41 (1), 31-50.
  11. Wheeler, Christopher H. (2006). “Cities and the Growth of Wages among Young Workers: Evidence from the NLSY,” Journal of Urban Economics, 60 (2), 162-184.
  12. Wheeler, Christopher H. (2006). “Productivity and the Geographic Concentration of Industry: The Role of Plant Scale,” Regional Science and Urban Economics, 36, 313-330.
  13. Wheeler, Christopher H. (2005). “Cities, Skills, and Inequality,” Growth and Change, 36 (3), 329-353.
  14. Wheeler, Christopher H. (2004). “Wage Inequality and Urban Density,” Journal of Economic Geography, 4 (4), 421-437.
  15. Wheeler, Christopher H. (2004). “On the Distributional Aspects of Urban Growth,” Journal of Urban Economics, 55 (2), 371-397.
  16. Wheeler, Christopher H. (2003). “Evidence on Agglomeration Economies, Diseconomies, and Growth,” Journal of Applied Econometrics, 18, 79-104.
  17. Wheeler, Christopher H. (2001). “Search, Sorting, and Urban Agglomeration,” Journal of Labor Economics, 19(4), 879-899.
  18. Wheeler, Christopher H. (2001). “A Note on the Spatial Correlation Structure of County-Level Growth in the U.S.,” Journal of Regional Science, 41(3), 433-449.

  1. Chen, Qingqing and Chris Wheeler (2022). “Forecasting Non-Performing Retail Loans During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Effect of Forbearance on Model Error.”
  2. Wheeler, Christopher H. (2009). “Human Capital Externalities and Adult Mortality in the U.S.”

  1. DiCecio, Ricardo, Kristie Engemann, Michael Owyang, and Christopher H. Wheeler (2008). “Changing Trends in the Labor Force: A Survey,” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review , 90 (1), January/February.
  2. Wheeler, Christopher H. (2007). “Trends in Neighborhood-Level Unemployment in the United States: 1980 to 2000,” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review , 89 (2), March/April.
  3. Wheeler, Christopher H. (2006). “Human Capital Growth in a Cross Section of US Metropolitan Areas,” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review , 88 (2), March/April.
  4. Wheeler, Christopher H. (2005). “Evidence on Wage Inequality, Worker Education, and Technology,” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review , 87 (3), May/June.