As part of a seminar series, the College of Business and Department of Economics will host research economist Mahmoud Elamin Friday at 2:30 in the Business Administration Building Room 483.

Elamin will discuss the role credit rating played during the recent financial crisis in his presentation “Believe Only What You See: Credit Rating Agencies, Structured Finance and Bonds.”

Elamin has his Ph.D. and Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Minnesota. He now works as a research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

Emmanuel Dechenaux, associate economics professor and seminar coordinator, said Elamin’s presentation is free to everyone, but might be of the most interest to economics faculty and graduate students because it is extremely technical.

Dechenaux said Elamin’s talk would mostly deal with finance and macroeconomics. However, he said he tries to have a mix of macroeconomics and microeconomics talks each semester to reach the interests of the department’s diverse faculty.

“Kent State is an institution whose mission is to engage in high-quality teaching, excellent teaching and excellent research,” Dechenaux said. “And so one of the main goals of the seminar series is to maintain an active and vibrant research atmosphere within the department and within the school.”

Contact Lyndsey Sager at [email protected].